HYBRID Earth Emerald
by Cookirini
Summary: The time: 2002. The goal: seven fabled gems. The enemy: a shady politician. The prize: Earth. To this end, Usagi must trust a thief whose past and future will forever be tangled with hers. An Archie Sonic, Sailor Moon crossover. Complete.
1. Default Chapter

__

September 11, 2001.

The stars have fallen from the sky.

It is the beginning of a terror unknown to the world; it's said that this is the beginning of a war. Indeed, it is.

The towers are falling now. They all watch as the dust and the soot, the fire and flame, they all become the skyline of that vaunted city, teeming with wasted life. Fear paralyzes them indefinite, their eyes saddened with the prospect of fallen comrades and loved ones.

It is the most beauiful scene I have beheld in almost all of my life.

Destruction and death of ungrateful children. I think the bin Laden associates have taste. They know where to strike. No one knew they were coming. Then they will know nothing.

No one knows I am coming. Everyone is too busy with the Americans, to know of the noble race which lays but a desert and worlds away. No one now, as we storm the island, we see the horrified faces of the animals as we hold our guns steady, steady. Then, like rain, we fall upon them, a hum in our voices. 

I watch, I am near the doorway, if my men do not survive, that is their problem. We have the gem, their gem of their world. We examine it, get what we need. I know we must get him if we are to be successful. And we will. I know it from the screams, the noise of the guns. Like a symphony.

I am going to twist the knife, I will twist it so hard she will beg for mercy. Then I will cut her throat, watch as her friends die under the power of what I seek. Watch also as the residents in the sky die under gunfire.

Pitiful species. Both of them. Had it not been that I seek the information, the creature of the island, I would care less. And her. She is what I seek. She must die as well. They will all die when I am through.

Indeed, it is the beginning of a war. My war. And victory will mine......................all these years..........these long, long years.................................

--------------------

January 8, 2002

Metropolitan Museum of Natural History, New York

The Heart of Hestia has become, in recent years, the highest grossing attraction of the museum. Millions have swarmed to see the mysterious emerald, perched upon a necklace older than the oldest building left standing in the Americas. Historians believed that Hannibal, Carthage's greatest general, wore the chain with the emerald around his neck as he pressed forth in the Alps those many years ago. He was defeated after the Romans captured his troops near Rome….as well as his necklace.

And now it is night, in January of 2002. The Heart has passed through countless owners during its lifespan. Rich and poor, male and female, Caucasian and Oriental, Crimean and African - all have had a hand in some way when it came to grasping the jewel. So it would be this night, the smell of death in the distance. The Heart is about to pass from the upscale keepers of the Guggenheim to that of the mysterious thief silently cutting the window apart up on the fourth floor.

The window shatters to the floor as the cutting is finished, but the thief pays no mind. He is used to such noise, and he is on the deserted block of the museum so that none may hear him. The room that the heist is to take place is enormous, but judging from his investigation today he can easily conclude that the acoustics of the room are terrible. Besides, he prefers silence in general, in comparison to the hustling of the people that he has had to deal with for the duration of his stay in the dismal place.

Looking to each side to ensure that no security cameras can spot him, the thief cocks his wide-brimmed hat, grasps his staff (used to cut the window open) and suddenly jumps off of the precipice of the fourth floor railing. Instead of falling, however, he gracefully floats in mid-air; like an angel he lands softly on the ground floor. His first mission - not getting killed when jumping off a high story - accomplished, he then proceeds to the center of the room, his shoes clacking softly on the marble floor as he walks. 

The elegant and simplistic beauty of the Heart of Hestia does not fool the thief in the least as he silently cuts the diamond-edged glass that surrounded it. He knows the power that it possesses - he has seen it, has been in the front line of battles in which the ultimate destructive power was unleashed, killing millions as the waves of pure energy swept the land in cold fury. He is more than determined the disallow such a possibility to happen here, in a place where such power is much more dangerous than ever - because no one has known of it's true capabilities. No person living or dead in the land of the free and the home of the brave has ever witnessed such a catastrophe that this jewel is known to cause. 

The collapse of the towers, that was close. But a razor nick in comparison.

Finally, after much difficulty, the thief manages to carefully take the Heart out of its millennia-old shell. Looking it over, he is relieved to see that none of the jewel is missing; it is intact, no terrible explosion to kill the poor man trying to save the world.

"Astanovka!!"

__

The thief's heart stops when he hears the Russian word spat out like ice. He knows that he has been followed, and that he has a choice: Leave the jewel or die.

But this time, he decides that chance was on his side. The last attempts ended the same. He would give up the jewel and run like hell. But not this time. He closes his eyes and wait.

"Yest iz mooravyey!!! Ezoomrood chiem Astavlyat!!"

__

Grasping his staff, he waits until the soldiers have closed in, waits until he can see the whites of their pitiful, squinted eyes as they aimed at his heart with their guns. Then he mutters, in a language unknown by human ears and unprintable by human hands. It sounds almost like a prayer as he suddenly leaps up and lashes out at his captors, knocking their guns out of their hands with a sweep of his foot.

__

The Russians give a shout, but it is of no use. The yest iz mooravyey, _as they called him, is too quick for them. He punches out one of them, then turns with a deftness unmatched by any in the land to smash another man's nose with his staff._

As soon as the battle begins, it is over. But the thief knows better than to stay and assess his victory. There are probably more outside; it is wiser to leave and fight another day.

With a fantastic leap, the thief lands back on the fourth floor and climbs out of the window, the Heart of Hestia in tow. It would be another day that he would continue the score with these certain cold-hearted Russians and their friends; indeed, it was the fact that there would be another day to live that gave him the strength of hope as he disappeared into the crowds of the remains of what the humans called the Big Apple.


	2. Spots

Konnichiwa!!

That's your Japanese for "hello". And I say hello to you. Watakushi wa Janelle-Li desu. _Or, if you in Japan wish to prefer, _Jainei Ee. _There's no 'r' or 'l' in that language._

I picked up that little 'r and l' tidbit from Steppenwolf. He's gone everywhere on Earth, and he finds it funny that he knows every single Earth language now. Actually, that's not a surprise to me. These languages are like baby talk to us. Try putting an Earth person in the same room with one of us, and from what I have gathered you people will leave no more informed than a dog. You wouldn't know it if we were telling your world was going to be destroyed.

But perhaps I'm being pessimistic. Pessimism was something I couldn't abide by before I came here, and I really don't like it now. And anyways, your languages can just sound so sad, _almost all of the people who wrote them had their dogs die the day before._

Kind of like that conversation being played out on a street in Mokan-ban right now. Just two guys, and they both sound like the Plague came upon them. The again, one person has a good reason to be pessimistic.

How do you do? 

I'm fine. 

And how about you? You look pale.

I've been feeling under the weather. 

Really? How? 

My skin's starting to discolor. I'm going to the doctor to check on this.

The man unrolls his arm. There is a nasty little spot on his arm. The outer circle is brown, and as it goes further in, it turns green.

Someone tried to rob my jewelry three nights ago, and I've been having problems with it since. 

But how could you have gotten something so horrible? 

Well, I don't know. Maybe I've been tainted with smallpox or anthrax. 

Don't joke like that!

But poor Ata Nakitsu of Mokan-ban, you have no clue. The thief that broke into your place was more than just a thief that tried to take your jewels. He stole something more precious than anything you might have owned in terms of material _things. When you get here, I'll explain what it is to you that that boy was after. _

Oh, and when you do come to my house, I'll have to clean up. Being the only woman can become pretty annoying, especially when everyone goes to see your country and whatnot and they leave dirty underwear all over the couch. That's the problem with being the only woman among a group of men. They expect you to clean everything. It can get annoying after awhile.

I can sympathize with other girls on this planet. They're always _being underestimated. Take this girl in another city in Japan. She's right here, snoring. Snoring rather loud, actually. But who'd think _she _could wipe out a city block? She can, too. I've seen her in action. She's incredible! And she's been doing it for awhile now. I know she'd tell her parents about this little secret of hers, but they probably wouldn't believe her._

Say....I just figured it out. If all _families could understand where the black sheep came with their ideas before they flew off the handle, a lot of this stuff wouldn't have been happening./i_

-------------------------

"Usaaaaaagi!!!!!"

"Coming, mom."

Usagi's feet shuffled as she took her bagel.

"You're going to be late, young lady!!"

"I know."

Usagi quietly walked away from the table and out the door.

"That girl…something is wrong." Kenji looked up. "She's been acting strange the past three days."

"I don't know what it could be." Ikuko turned to Luna. "Do you know?"

"Meow." Luna shook her head.

"Aaaah, probably a test she isn't telling us about!" Kenji sipped his coffee. "When she gets to school, she'll be her usual chatty self…"

----------------------

Usagi looked at the empty desk in front of her as the class ended. Even after everyone left, she simply sat, staring.

I can't stop myself from being low, she thought. _Of all the people to have it happen to…_

"Usagi."

Usagi turned to see Haruka sitting in the back, holding a bag. She simply gave a half-hearted smile.

"Hi, Haruka."

"Usagi, I know what you're thinking." Haruka got up. "You don't have to pretend."

Usagi watched as Haruka came over to the desk next to hers. Her head went down, and she began to cry.

"Stop." Haruka shook her head. "There's nothing you could do."

"But, Haruka..." Usagi rubbed her eyes. "I didn't think that I'd meet someone like that. I mean, one moment, I'm chasing off some thieves, and the next....."

"Usagi." Haruka looked over at the window. "We've been trying to locate it since it attacked OSA-P. But there's no sign of the enemy we saw anywhere. Nor...of that _other_ thing."

Usagi nodded.

"Are you going to see her today?"

"Yes."

"Look, if I could give you some suggestions," Haruka opened a bag, taking out a dozen roses. "One of them is that you owe me for this."

"Haruka!!" Usagi's face brightened. "You kept your promise!"

"Yes." Haruka nodded. "I kept my part. Now _you _have to invite me over to try your mother's cooking. I've known you long enough, and I seem to be the only person that _hasn't _tasted Ikuko's food. And you have to come with us tonight."

"Where?"

"To a show."

Usagi gave a smile, and she leaned over to give Haruka a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks."

---------------------

"And what happened next?"

"Well...." Naru rubbed her hands. "I'm not completely sure."

"Tell me what you remember."

It had been three days since Naru had been carried to the First Juuban Hospital by the superheroine Sailor Moon. The blond policeman took off his glasses, revealing his blue eyes, as he scanned Naru's skin, which was dotted with spots and IVs.

"Then this Sailor Moon came in?"

"Yes." Naru replied.

"Then....after that. One of the shadowed figures attacked you?"

"Yeah. They were all keeping in the shadows. So I couldn't really tell what they were doing. Except that one. He charged at me."

"_He_?"

"Yeah. I'm sure of that. It was a short guy." Naru rubbed her nose. "I went to get a weapon from upstairs, and......"

Naru stopped. The policeman didn't blink as she looked confused.

"Go on."

"Well....this is the part where I'm not sure. When I started up the stairs....I felt this sharp pain. First in my arm, then in my whole body. It was like I was being.......electrocuted or shot at.....I'm not sure..." Naru's voice cracked. "Then I saw....at the top of the stairs....._something_."

"Something."

"Yes. It looked like....I don't know. It was like a flash of light, then a silhouette, then the pain stopped. I remember being really disoriented from the pain. I could see something coming towards my attacker, and then my attacker kind of.....disappeared."

"Then you fainted."

"Yeah. I guess I couldn't take the pain. Then I found myself here."

"I suppose that's all I have to ask." The policeman checked his notes. "I'm simply here to verify what you have told us. Thank you."

As the policeman stood up to leave, the door opened. The policeman turned to face Usagi, carrying a bouquet of flowers.

"Hi, Naru." She looked up at the policeman. "Oh, hi."

"Hi............" The policeman blinked, his eyes wide. "And you must be....?"

"Her friend. Can I get through?"

"Um....." the policeman turned red as he nodded. "Of.....course.....you may."

As quick as he could, the policeman excused himself from the room. Naru chuckled, then coughed.

"And in the news today…" the anchorman continued. "American troops have attacked a small group believed to be al-Queda sympathizers near the southern city of Kandahar…"

"What a weirdo, that policeman." Usai took the remote and changed the channel. "Yam Yam cookie commercial…heh."

"He is, isn't he? Well, he was acting normal until you came in."

"Pervert." Usagi rolled her eyes. "You'll find them everywhere."

"Yeah." Naru spotted at roses. "Are those for me?"

"Yes. They're from everyone."

"Thank you."

Naru took the flowers and smelled them, but Usagi noticed the sadness in her eyes. With a sigh, her head went down.

"They smell wonderful, Usagi."

"Naru...." _No way to turn back_. "Are you angry at me?"

"Angry? Why?"

"Naru, please don't be like this."

"I guess I shouldn't be a little upset." Naru turned her head. "But I am. I thought we could keep each other's secrets."

"Naru. I didn't tell you I was Sailor Moon because I didn't trust you. It was because….well, look at me!!" Usagi stood up. "Would you honestly think I was _Sailor Moon_?!? Me!!! Usagi, the girl who can't walk without tripping over herself, saving the world!!! You wouldn't have believed me."

Naru's eyes grew wide with shock. Slowly, however, she nodded.

"I guess you're right." Naru looked at Usagi. "I wouldn't have believed you. But I guess I knew all along. I mean, I should have. I was the only victim that you knew well enough to use the back door to get into OSA-P in the night…instead of breaking the windows or falling through the ceiling or doing something stupid like other superheroes do."

The two began to laugh at that thought. Neither of them noticed the door cracking open slightly, nor did they see the blue eye peering in.

"Well, what did the doctors say?"

"Radiation sickness."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but only because they have no other name for it. If they said something like…..well….you know…." Naru gave a sigh. "And supposedly I'm not the only one with it. They're saying some other guy's been infected with radiation sickness too. Up north, that is."

"Well…." Usagi thought for a moment. "Maybe that guy injected you with something."

"Maybe. But….Usagi…." Naru gave a nervous laugh. "Now, I know this is going to sound like a weird question, but….when I got attacked…..was there a strange figure that came down the stairs?"

Usagi's eyes grew wide as Naru's question. _The…..figure?_

"You look shocked! So you saw it?!"

"I'm shocked because you saw it."

"What did it look like??!"

"Well…." Usagi wasn't sure how to describe it. "I mean, it was short. And….it was a dark color. Red or brown or black or something like that. It was dark, but I could tell it had a dark color nonetheless."

"And what did it do?"

"Well, I was fighting the Russian guys when I heard some shouting, then I looked over and saw the creature running towards us. I ducked, natu-"

"_Russian_?!"

"Yeah. I could tell. They were saying some Russian words. Not that I know Russian, but you know a Russian when you hear one."

The sound of a door clicking shut suddenly turned their attention to the door. The two gasped, and Usagi stood up.

"You don't think….?"

"I think it was." Usagi quickly went to the door. "If that policeman was an enemy getting information….!!!"

As quick as Usagi could open the door, however, it was the policeman who was the quicker one. The girl looked all over the hallway that the room was in, but there was no sign of there ever having been a policeman there.

-----------------------

The sun began to set upon the city of Tokyo. It blazed forth many different colors upon the sky - blue, orange, yellow, purple But all he could see was red, blood red.

The blond wig and police clothing fell to the floor. The man clutched his staff as he looked over the city through his window. Adjusting his hat, as well as his dark overcoat, he wondered why he was bothering himself with this burden. This wasn't his home. It wasn't his people. There was nothing that said he had to lift a finger to help them.

Yet when he thought this, he thought he saw himself staring at two bright blue eyes through the reflection of the window. When the blue eyes caught the dying sunlight they turned white and melted back into the city. The eyes were not his, but _hers_. He had never seen such beauty before. The image clung onto him, even as he mapped out the next target in the line of fire.

TBC


	3. Monster

CHOODOBESHE  
  
(Monster)  
  
  
  
Hmmmm..interesting.  
  
Your planet is a treasure trove. Of people, of resources..of power.  
  
It's much like our homeworld, actually. Just more humans. We called them Overlanders. Their origins were obscure. But you, you have figured them out. You say that you evolved from monkeys.  
  
Well, we know how we evolved too. We evolved from races with names that are long lost to antiquity. Slime, then the unknown races..then us. We, like you, were first.  
  
And you, like us, have a hidden source of infinite power, which you know nothing of.  
  
But I see in your eyes, humans, that you wish to be more. You want to have the power to wipe away old age. You've been studying it, and you find that a certain gene, if left unbroken, could constitute the Fountain of Youth. You also want to clone your people to find cures for certain diseases. You find that certain plants which spell death to others can spell life to you.  
  
That is where we differ. Perhaps in life I thought that all were privileged to such qualities. But such desires will come to a bad end. They have started wars on our planets. They have killed millions of people.  
  
And, from the look on your face, Mr. Secretary, that is exactly what you want.  
  
Oh, the Death of your world, and its name is Atrava. And Death's reaper, his name..is the Green Monster which plagues Tokyo.  
  
Ata Nakitsu, Meian Haru, Naru Osaka - you are not the last to be attacked.  
  
-----------------------------  
  
The night was dim and cloudy in Tokyo. The moon was covered by a murky sheet of nimbus clouds. The forecasters had predicted that there would be thunderstorms that night - an unusual thing in November, for normally, it snowed.  
  
But it was exactly what he wanted.  
  
"Is everything ready?" he asked with a Russian accent.  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
"Good." The man turned to his right. "Are you ready?"  
  
The short, cloaked figure looked up at his owner. From the hatred in his cloudy green eyes, the man could tell that his servant was ready to go.  
  
"Good." The man looked at their target building. "Remember my signal."  
  
"Da." The men nodded. The cloaked figure only stared at the building.  
  
"This could be the place. Remember, he said himself that there was an unusual amount of energy here in this country. Which means our friend might be here by now." The man's eyes flashed at his last sentence. "Remember - take no prisoners. Knock everyone out. Let's go!!"  
  
With that, everyone quietly stormed the building, taking their positions in wait for the big prize. A crash of thunder rumbled as the man quietly composed himself, raised his umbrella, and walked into the building.  
  
--------------------------  
  
The party was small in comparison to some of the ones held in recent weeks, but with consideration to recent events, the Second Juuban Museum of Natural History inauguration party still hit it off with its invitees. Not even the thunder and lightning outside could really deter anyone's attention away from the exhibits.  
  
"Wow!!" Usagi poured over the natural gems. "This is beautiful! Like a treasure trove!"  
  
"Usagi seems to be enjoying herself." Mamoru looked at Michiru. "I guess you were right. This cheered up her spirits."  
  
"Well," Michiru replied. "I thought it would."  
  
"Hey! Usagi!" Rei pulled on Usagi's arm. "Those aren't the only things in here, you know!!"  
  
"But they're so preeeeeettyyyy.."  
  
"Isn't it a little dangerous?" Hotaru turned her head towards the northern point of the room.  
  
"What do you mean?" Setsuna looked over. "I suppose it is."  
  
Near the corner of the room was a brown-haired man, wearing a simple two piece suit with a tie. Hotaru nodded.  
  
"Killing two birds with one stone. And he doesn't even know it yet."  
  
"Ladies and gentlemen!" The organizer of the event held his hands up. "Please! I would like your attention. We are about to start the launching of our new facility. First, a word on the importance of our natural history from our guest, the esteemed American, Mr. Kyle Resnick, who was delayed because of the thunderstorm."  
  
From another side of the room came a black-haired man, who almost leaped up onto the podium at the same time that he began to talk. Everyone quickly sat down in their seats.  
  
"Thank you." He said in halted Japanese. "I apologize for the delay. I would first like to thank the Exchange Program for allowing the city of Tokyo to found such an important museum."  
  
"His tie seems to be a little tight, don't you think?" Hotaru whispered to Setsuna.  
  
"The natural history of our planet is incredibly important," the man continued. "We are only beginning to understand the importance of using rocks and gems deep in the earth to determine the vast history of the world that we have grown to love. The AAS, the American Archeological Society, has made several interesting discoveries pertaining to the earliest Egyptian civilizations..and their use of emeralds. The emeralds shown here at the Museum are among several hundred thought to belong to the earliest of the Egyptians, dating back from 4,000 BC. Yet, as you can see, they are in perfect condition."  
  
Most of the crowd ooohed and aaaahed at the fact. Usagi looked around her to notice that the brown-haired man was coming to sit next to her.  
  
"And there are many other incredible things you will find in the museum. For example," Resnick pointed to a large ruby sapphire, "that right over there was a part of the Czar's collection of special occaision jewelry. It was a part of his special coronation armor, and was worn the night of his coronation to promote the longevity of his reign. It was a part of a little- known ceremony called the noch vyelichestvennay - 'Imperial Night.' We estimate that it was in the Romanov family since about 1709, and it is now priceless."  
  
The crowd oohed and aahed again. Usagi felt a nudge from the brown-haired man as he sat down.  
  
"And this one, from the Rus era."  
  
"Very interesting."  
  
"Huh?" Usagi turned to see that the brown-haired man was talking to her.  
  
"I said it was very interesting." The brown-haired man shrugged. "Most of this seems to come from Russia."  
  
"Oh." Usagi looked back towards the speaker.  
  
Usagi felt struck by the way that the man next to her talked. It wasn't so much what he said, but it was the voice. There is something familiar about this man.  
  
She turned to talk to him again, but found that he was looking at the speaker. Once again she was struck, only now she was struck by the familiarity of his face. No. I've met this man before. And it was recently. I just can't quite point out.  
  
"And now."  
  
The brown haired man gave a loud yawn and rubbed his eyes. As he did, however, he sneezed.  
  
"Eeee!" Usagi gasped. Some of the snot had fallen on her.  
  
Suddenly, the lights were turned out. People began to murmur nervously as the American stopped.  
  
"What...is going on?" Resnick finally murmured. "This doesn't look right."  
  
Suddenly, the windows shattered, and smoke began to appear in the room.  
  
"AAAAAAAAH!!!!"  
  
The people suddenly jumped up in their chairs. The brown-haired man and Resnick were among the few who were able to leave and escape, before several black-suited figures closed the door on them.  
  
"Teshena!!" The figures took out some guns and pointed them at the guests. "Teshena!!"  
  
"Usagi!!"  
  
Usagi, though she suddenly felt sleepy, felt her arm tugged, then her body dragged to the floor by another guest. The shrieks of the other guests, meanwhile, began to die.  
  
"Huh?" Usagi rubbed her eyes. "What's going on?"  
  
"An attack," Rei hissed.  
  
"They sound Russian." Michiru looked around as guests began to collapse. "They're using sleeping gas."  
  
"Shhhhhhhhh." Setsuna put her finger up.  
  
The cries of the guests finally died as the guests finally collapsed. The soldiers under the seats stayed completely quiet.  
  
I hope Mamo-chan, Haruka and Minako are all right.  
  
"(????????w?§¥Ø?.)"  
  
All of the sailors' heads went up when they heard the strange sound from up on the balcony.  
  
"What was that?" Michiru turned to Setsuna.  
  
"....A language unknown to human ears."  
  
Indeed, a figure suddenly emerged from the shadows, floating down gently to the ground in front of the troops. It slowly stepped up onto one of the unconscious guests and chuckled.  
  
"A man." Usagi looked the figure up and down and began to sweat. "Albeit.a short man."  
  
"Do you know what language he's saying?" Rei asked.  
  
"No." Setsuna shook her head. "It's too complicated. I don't know what he's saying."  
  
The short figure began to speak again in the incomprehensible language, and the men stood at attention. Usagi looked up, straining her ear.  
  
"These men. Don't they sound familiar?" she whispered.  
  
"They should."  
  
Usagi's heart froze at Setsuna's words. The feeling became worse when she saw the short figure bring out its hand and do something similar to a thumbs-up. The hand was green.  
  
"The green monster from Naru's house!!" she whispered fearfully.  
  
"Indeed." Michiru quietly took out her transformation pen.  
  
"Wait."  
  
The men began to search out the jewels as the short figure watched them, slowly seeming to scan the room. Finally, one man shouted in Russian as he brought forth the first jewel - the emerald from Egypt.  
  
"He said, 'I found it.'" Michiru watched.  
  
The short figure took the emerald and thoroughly examined it. After a moment, the short figure's free hand came up and pointed towards the man who brought it over. Usagi could see the terror in his eyes.  
  
"Ne!!" The guilty party screamed. "NE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
The man's pleading was suddenly cut off by a loud scream, which was also suddenly cut off. The soldiers gasped as the man was suddenly overwhelmed and encased in an outer shell of pure emerald.  
  
"My God.." Setsuna muttered.  
  
"That's not the end." Hotaru's eyes squinted.  
  
The statue that had been a man suddenly began to crack. Within seconds, it suddenly collapsed, turning into dust as it did. The figure did not even seem to flinch as he ended his servant's life.  
  
"Gaspaden." Another man shook his head. "Chiem kamen na Felosofeya."  
  
"(?ÿ?®????u??IöDK???tz?fLGNa.)"  
  
Setsuna looked up to see that the men were coming over towards them.  
  
"Damn. He must have seen us."  
  
"Huh?" Rei couldn't believe it. "How?!"  
  
"Hello!!"  
  
The Russian accented salutations froze everyone. Usagi's heart began to accelerate.  
  
"We are not here to hurt you!" Even as he said this, she could hear him loading a round of ammunition on the barrel. "We simply wish to know something."  
  
"A semi-automatic Seroykov." Michiru muttered. "We don't stand a chance."  
  
For several moments, the sailors somberly quieted themselves as they heard the man finish loading his gun. They could hear the sound of the lock clicking out of check, and the bullets as they slid into place.  
  
"(|Æügø¨Ù?????????*çî?--)"  
  
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Without warning, a flash of light appeared in the room. The cloaked figure whirled around to face the origin of the scream, but it was too late. One deft stroke to his cheek. He grunted as he fell to the ground, holding his cheek as it bled, his eyes glaring at the attacker.  
  
"Gaspaden!!"  
  
The men ran to intercept the surprise attacker, but was suddenly restrained by a bright yellow chain, which wrapped around them.  
  
"Now!" Uranus jumped up, the tip of the Space Sword stained with blood. "Space Sword...Blaster!!!"  
  
"URANUS!!!"  
  
The monster's eyes bore into Uranus with a full hatred she had never seen in anyone before. Even when her sword swiped what was the monster, even when the monster disappeared into thin air, which caused her to slice into the floor, she still saw the hatred.  
  
"Damn!!" Uranus saw the men as they struggled against the chain. She pointed to the chairs. "Guys! Venus can only hold out so long!"  
  
"Right!!" Rei took out her pen. "Mars Crystal Power!"  
  
"Neptune Crystal Power!"  
  
"Pluto Crystal Power!"  
  
"Saturn Crystal Power!"  
  
"Moon Eternal!"  
  
"Make-Up!!"  
  
The men finally broke through the chains, and they began to charge towards the soldiers, guns ready.  
  
"PALE!!"" One shouted.  
  
"PALE!!" More began to shout as they cocked their guns and fired.  
  
"Silent Wall!!"  
  
Saturn held her glaive. The bullets bounced harmlessly off of the invisible force field. Still the men charged. From the corner of Sailor Moon's eyes, she could see more men climbing into room through the windows.  
  
"Aw man!!!" Sailor Moon turned to the other soldiers. "We've got to do something!"  
  
"Can't." Uranus' teeth grit. "These guys are normal humans. We can't kill them!"  
  
"WHAT?!!?"  
  
The men began to close in on the soldiers. Sailor Moon could feel the air become stale as she tightly shut her eyes.  
  
It can't end like this. I must save Naru from that green monster that I have seen!!!  
  
One man suddenly grabbed Sailor Moon's hair and began to pull it. With a scream, the girl attempted to get away, but was unable to, dropping her tier in one of her attempts.  
  
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
"PRINCESS!!"  
  
Uranus attempted to get to her, but was surrounded by the men. The others shared the same dilemma. Even Tuxedo Mask, who had been hiding in the shadows, was unable to get into the large crowd of men and fainted guests.  
  
"Damn!"  
  
"Let's see." The Russian menacingly spoke in halted Japanese as he put a knife to Sailor Moon's throat. "How many of you can we kill?"  
  
CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
  
  
Suddenly, the glass ceiling above them shattered as a black mass appeared above the group. The room, its excellent acoustics now exposed to the outside elements, rumbled as the thunder roared above them. The menacing tone of Sailor Moon's captor suddenly changed. The knife flew away from Sailor Moon's throat, and her hair was released.  
  
" !!!" he screamed. "BEG!!!!"  
  
He himself began to run, but the figure was far too quick. Twirling a staff in its hand, it hit the man before it landed on the ground, sending the attacker flying. The fact that it was now raining into the room caused him to also slide several feet  
  
"NE!!!"  
  
One of the attackers jumped to attack Sailor Moon. With a scream, she threw her hands up.  
  
"NOOOOOO!!!"  
  
Instead of feeling another man on her, she suddenly heard the sound of a man grunting, then a loud bang as something hit the floor. She opened her eyes to see that the man had been struck in the head by the figure, and was now lying on the floor, unconscious.  
  
"BEG!!!!!" The black-smocked men were in total chaos as they ran for the exits. "BEG!!"  
  
--------------------  
  
After several minutes of confusion, the only one left were the soldiers, the unconscious guests, the unconscious attackers...and the mysterious man who stood in front of Sailor Moon, clutching his staff.  
  
"I.....don't know how to thank you." Sailor Moon finally found her voice in the face of the stranger. "You saved my life."  
  
The mysterious man turned to Sailor Moon and began to walk towards her. He was a strange sight to behold. Along with the wide-brimmed hat, which covered his face but only partially covered his incredibly long red hair, he wore a long brown overcoat of some sorts, which covered a white karate top and slightly baggy brown trousers. Under the white top was a black turtleneck - which also had long arms, as they covered his hands all the way up to his knuckles. Upon learning this last fact about her savior, Sailor Moon noticed that his hands, and his fingers, were unusually large and knobby, with a slightly large gap in between the middle finger and the index finger.  
  
"Th-thank you." Sailor Moon repeated herself.  
  
The man bent down and simply brought his lips to Sailor Moon's ear.  
  
"No. Thank you."  
  
Sailor Moon's eyes grew wide as the man stood back up. She looked at him, her face pale. The other soldiers looked on, their faces paling from shock. Tuxedo Mask was most shocked of all, though he forced himself to only widening his eyes in anger.  
  
"Hey!! Uranus finally spoke. "What do you think you're doing, kissing her!! We'll have you know she's engaged."  
  
"Kiss her?" The man finally spoke to the other soldiers. "Is that what you think I did?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Anyways," Neptune finally stepped forward, silencing Uranus' angry replies. "Thank you for helping us. We thought for certain we were going to lose."  
  
"You're welcome."  
  
The man suddenly turned around and began to get to the door.  
  
"Wait!!" Uranus turned around and pointed her sword at the man. "Stop!! Who are you?!"  
  
The man turned towards Uranus. He seemed angry as he spoke.  
  
"You have no need to know of my identity. I am....anonymous to you." The man turned back around. "All you ever need know is that I here to complete a mission that you have no business in. I have been on this mission for a long time, and I normally do not spare those who get in my way."  
  
"What is that?!" Uranus became visibly angrier.  
  
"You get what I mean. May we..not meet again," The man looked up at the window above him. "Or else we will not part on such friendly terms."  
  
To everyone's shock, the man gave a jump, and flew up to the balcony window, where he disappeared from sight.  
  
What did he mean.. Sailor Moon looked at Tuxedo Mask, who looked back at her. His face was visibly worried. He didn't kiss me, Mamo-chan. But...'Thank you'? What in the world...  
  
Police sirens could be heard in the distance as Uranus dropped her sword.  
  
"I don't get it." Uranus' teeth were clenched. "'Anonymous'? I wonder what his problem is."  
  
"They were after the Philosopher Stones."  
  
Uranus turned to Pluto.  
  
"Philosopher Stones? What do you mean?"  
  
"The Russian man who was talking to the leader." Pluto looked at her Garnet Orb. "They were discussing the Philosopher Stones."  
  
"And they thought that one of those were here?" Neptune's eyes grew wide.  
  
"Yes." Pluto nodded.  
  
"But what are they?" Venus asked. "Is there something about them that makes them so important?"  
  
Pluto gave no reply.  
  
-----------------  
  
Smoke filled the room as vodka filled the glasses. It was an extremely hectic night for the two men as they had anxiously awaited the news that they were expecting. As one of the men, a younger, muscular man, walked back into the room, he handed the paper to his partner, a man who was a decade or two older, and slightly thinner, with slight grey at his temples.  
  
"The report is in."  
  
"You're positive that it's in Japan?"  
  
"Positive." The younger man nodded. "I've got confirmation on that. Our friend isn't as intelligent as we thought. Or he's more than we thought."  
  
"I'm not so sure." The older man turned to him. "It seems that you have failed each time you set a trap for him. And the last Chaos Emerald doesn't seem to be in Japan as previously thought."  
  
"There is a power there. My man on the job confirmed it. But he can't quite point out exactly what the power is."  
  
"Your man?"  
  
"That's right."  
  
At the snap of his fingers, the hooded creature appeared.  
  
"Your man, eh?" The elder man chuckled. "He looks more like one of those jilted animals from your place."  
  
"Oh, but I think he's been of great use to us, don't you? He's been with me since I've started. He's everything you'd need from a servant. He's smart, he's cunning, he's got some power behind what he does."  
  
"Anything else?"  
  
"He's got a stake in getting our friend. It's one that's just as large as mine, or yours."  
  
The elder man looked at the hooded figure closely.  
  
"Take off your hood."  
  
"(The boss wishes to see your face)", the younger man quickly translated into the impossible language.  
  
The hooded figure slowly took his hood off. A large red mark was visible on his green cheek.  
  
"(Eh?)" The younger man was surprised. "(Where did you get that mark?)"  
  
"(From a girl.)" The green monster looked up at the younger man. "(During the attempt at the Second Juuban, a tall girl came and swiped me with a sword..Sailor Uranus. That was her name.)"  
  
"(Sailor Uranus?)" The question this time came from the older man. "(Are you certain?)"  
  
"(Yes..)" The green monster turned to the older man. "(Papu Atrava. You seem to know those sailors well.)"  
  
The older man, Atrava, gave a slight start before laughing. He circled the green monster.  
  
"(Interesting. Interesting!!!)" Atrava turned to the younger man and spoke in Russian. "Umyenya vedyetyul valshebnay aden prarok ez Volnost."  
  
"You know how I am with Russian, Atava."  
  
"Indeed, Vanguard, indeed." Atrava spoke in Japanese again. "He seems to have some use if he can pull my name out from nowhere. Unless you told him."  
  
"You know me. I would do no such thing!" Vanguard laughed. "My men are the real thing. Especially this one. He'll get you what you ask."  
  
"Indeed." Atrava turned to the door. "If he is as good as you say, then dispatch him against those..sailors.and our friend. If he is as good as you say he is."  
  
With that, the door slammed. Vanguard turned to the green monster and nodded.  
  
"(You understood him well enough, right?)"  
  
"(Yes.)"  
  
"(I suggest you do it, then.)" Vanguard laughed. "(Wouldn't want to anger him. He holds all the cards in his hands.)"  
  
"(He seems well.)"  
  
"(Then you know nothing about Papu Atrava.)"  
  
"(I know him well enough.)" The green monster disappeared.  
  
Vanguard gave a sigh as he opened another door, which led to a stairwell. He went down to the bottom of the stairs, where several men were carrying a large crate.  
  
"Svepch tuda." he said to the men carrying it. "It has something of great importance to me, and Heaven forbid it gets disturbed."  
  
  
  
TBC 


	4. Battle

****

BETVA  
_(Battle)_

  
  
_The shadows of souls. The flash of light. A powerful stench in the air as hundreds fell to the ground. Many who have not died are injured, the bullets of callousness and greed in their bodies.  
  
It is a scene not unknown to our people. But it was the last our people would see in their brutally shortened lives. Their guardian was gone; a victim of the massacre in his own unfortunate way. Even the scoundrels who fought him were destroyed mercilessly. All had to die for the sake of one idea: there could be no witnesses what was found.  
  
But there are eight people. Eight people left to vouch that the civilization which was taken away from them existed. Three were not at the site. Two hid when the massacre began. Two disappeared, but are still alive now. And one of them walked blindly in the ruins, his arm seemingly attached to the red splotch on his clothing which adorned his arm - the result of a bullet.  
  
My son, he moans. My son. Why has this happened?  
  
He tripped over a dead body before tripping over his own, his hope for the future destroyed. There was nothing left. He does not know of the other survivors. In his eyes, everything is gone - and it is his fault.  
  
No, no. The hand on his injured arm went up to his temples, banging his hand angrily. This is all my fault. If only I had a way of knowing the consequences. Fate! Why did you forsake me? Is this what is to happen to us?  
  
Suddenly, a small and brilliant light burst from the death and despair that circled him. It caught him by surprise as it filled his vision with nothing but white.  
  
What….what is this?!?  
  
Suddenly, he sees a shadow in the light. It is of a creature he had never seen before. As it came closer to him, it occurred to the man what it was.  
  
A human.  
  
It is this which causes such agony, isn't it? You wish to see that creature again. It does not matter how much you see her, your desire shall never be fulfilled, cursed devil.  
  
You need not wait longer. You shall get your chance. _  
  
------------------------------  
  
The call was made. The sailor soldiers, sans Usagi and Mamoru, sat around a circle, though they all knew that it would not be long before they themselves came to the shrine.  
  
"This is getting to me." Haruka tapped her fingers on her hands. Her face was shadowed by the fire. "Only to days of knowing this man's existence, and it will not rest easy. The wind has violently shifted."  
"I…" Rei muttered. "This sucks, just say it, Haruka."   
  
It was obvious to all she was trying to mask her anger. Michiru lay a hand on Haruka's shoulder as the conversation continued. They had been discussing the book for several hours.  
  
"Same here." Michiru nodded. "This man seems to be teasing us with the information we have been searching for."  
"Yes," Ami spoke up. "But even so, perhaps we should consider the fact that that man even sent this to us in the first place."   
"Yes." Haruka huffed. "That @#%$ Anonymous. After all, what kind of man would send this? A deranged stalker."  
"Heehee." Minako giggled. "Usagi seems to attract that type of man…"  
  
Everyone looked at Minako, their faces grim and serious. Minako gave a whimper before shutting her mouth.  
  
"Sorry…"  
"But…." Ami looked at the others. "Why would Anonymous help us if he didn't feel _something_ towards saving the planet?"  
"He could be an insane criminal, Ami." Haruka shook her head again. "A stalker who has chosen Usagi as his object of lust. All of these things he is doing, he is doing for her."  
"Then…….." Ami's eyes grew wide.  
"Yes." Haruka stood up. "This monster knows her true identity. And we must stop him at all costs from exploiting that. Even if it means his end."  
  
----------------------  
  
The night slowly inked its way in as the sailors quietly watched as Sailor Mercury tapped several keys on her keyboard.  
  
"Anything?"  
"…Not yet." Sailor Mercury gave a sigh. "But it _must_ attack soon."  
  
They all sat in wait at Hikawa Shrine, silently contemplating the night ahead of them.  
  
"He has attacked every single night, in various places around Japan." Sailor Mercury explained. "I don't think the green monster is simply going to vanish. There are still several huge places to hit, where one of these Philosopher Stones may be."  
"Such as…?"  
"Well…" Mercury looked at them. "The Emperor's Palace."  
  
Everyone gasped, except for Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. Mars turned to see them holding each other's hand in a tight grip. She gave a smile.  
  
"So, you guys are back together, huh?"  
"Huh?" Tuxedo Mask looked confused. "I never knew we were even apart."  
"Oh…." Mars decided to drop the subject.  
"Huh?!" Mercury looked at her visor.   
"Mercury?!"  
"The Green Monster has entered the city again!"  
  
------------------------  
  
A burst of green light encroached the city as the cloaked figure and the army of men appeared in the quieted streets of Tokyo.  
  
"(_I will not be thwarted again, Vanguard._)"  
"(_That is good._)" The young black-haired man appeared. "(_It seems your report concerning the soldiers has made him quite upset._)"  
"(_On the contrary,_)" The cloaked figure turned to the city. "(_I think he became more determined to find the last Stones. If it is not where we think it is, then we will know for certain that_ he_ was tricking us._)"  
  
The emphasis on 'he' came out like a bitter pill. Vanguard gave an evil nod.  
  
"(_That's right, isn't it? You seem to hate him._)" Vanguard turned towards the city. "(_But searching in the land of Atrava shouldn't be too bad. In fact, I'll be happy to get away this pathetic dump of a planet._)"  
  
The cloaked monster said nothing as it held up its three fingered hand.  
  
-------------------------  
  
The energy readings on Mercury's visor began to rise substantially.  
  
"What…?!?"  
"Ami!!" Neptune stared at her mirror. "This power…"  
"This…is so strange." Ami clicked on her visor.  
"What's going on?" Jupiter asked.  
"The power base of the Green Monster…" Mercury's voice cracked. "It's….increasing!! The speed is past anything I've seen!"  
  
The locket on Sailor Moon's suit suddenly opened. The Silver Crystal began to glow.  
  
"My crystal..?"  
"Over there!!"   
  
Venus pointed to a small green aura several miles away. The soldiers jumped up to look. As he got up to look, Tuxedo Mask looked over to see that the Silver Crystal was beginning to shine brighter.  
  
"The aura is increasing…"  
"What is that thing?!? What kind of talisman is he using!?"  
"The Philosopher Stones?"  
"…..Usako?"   
  
As the green aura became brighter, so did Sailor Moon's crystal. She looked at it quizzically, then looked up at Tukedo Mask.  
  
"The crystal…is gathering its energies….on its own…."  
  
Everyone turned to look at the Silver Crystal. Everyone, save Ami, lost interest in the parameter readings, which, as Ami looked in horror, increased. A flashing eight-sign appeared at the top of the screen as the sky above Tokyo began to turn green.  
  
"GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Ami's scream came too late as a blast of raw energy suddenly sizzled from the point of the city where the Green Monster lay. It rolled over the city, slamming into the Hikawa Shrine. The soldiers could hear the wood and metal in the building groan as it collapsed under the power of the energy. Then the raw energy hit the soldiers.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"  
  
They saw huge burns appear on their arms and legs as they fell, before everything turned white.  
  
------------------------------  
  
The entire city was blanketed in a thick cloud of green as the Green Monster turned to Vanguard.  
  
"(_That should take care of those girls…for now._)"  
"(_Just for now_?)" Vanguard's words were teasing. "(_I would think you could obliterate them in the blink of an eye._)"  
"(_I tried. But…….it doesn't matter._)" The Green Monster simply turned away as he waved a hand to the armies of Mafia. "(_We have work to do._)"  
  
---------------------------  
  
The bright white light glowed brilliantly for about five minutes. As the soldiers slowly opened their eyes once more, it had begun to dissipate, but the effects of it were clear.  
  
"Our skin!!"  
"It's returning to normal…."  
  
Sailor Moon, who also opened her eyes, watched with shock as the green on her skin, with all of the burns and cuts, began to change color under the brilliance of the Silver Crystal. She gave a gasp as she floated back to the ground.  
  
"…….Incredible………"  
"Sailor….Moon…." The soldiers looked at their leader.  
"Guys…….." Sailor found her voice. "Are you guys all right?!"  
"Yeah….."  
  
Slowly, Uranus and Neptune stood up. They looked onto what remained of Hikawa Shrine.  
  
"That monster…."  
"It is the same power that obviously affected Naru and those other store owners."  
"And it is heading towards the Emperor's Palace." Mercury looked at her computer. "We'd better hurry."  
  
-------------------------  
  
The black-clad men quietly subdued the guards on duty in the Emperor's Garden.  
  
"(_It's over here somewhere._)" Vanguard quietly pointed. "(_What is it called again?_)"  
"(_The Heart of the Empress._)" the green monster simply replied.  
"(_I see that your powers of second sight are impeccable,_)" Vanguard commented slyly.  
  
The stone was brought to the monster, who took it and carefully began to examine it. Vanguard watched as the gem slid through the monster's hands, feeling the cut of the side.  
_I was right in sparing him,_ Vanguard gave a smile. _He knows his gems. He is searching for the power…which will bring me to what I always dreamed of…._  
  
Suddenly, the gem crashed to the floor, shattered into a million pieces. The man who brought the gem suddenly combusted into dust. Vanguard's eyes briefly grew wide as the quickness of the monster's wrath, but they went back down as it looked back down to the ground.  
  
"(_Well, we know that truth now._)" Vanguard shook his head. "(_The gem's in Russia….looks like our friend led us on a wild goose chase after all. Figures, of course…_)"  
  
The green monster did not reply as the men quietly broke through a small wall of the garden. He simply looked up at the ceiling, an angry look on his face.  
  
"(_What is the matter?_)"  
"(_…………………….Them._)"  
  
As if his words were a signal, a loud crash came from the ceiling of the garden's basilica. Nine silhouettes dropped to the ground, followed by a tenth.  
  
"You again!" Shouting to the shadows in Japanese, Vanguard clenched his fists. "Look like my men can't shake you off, huh?"  
"You'll have much more to shake off when we're through with you!" The head silhouette shouted as she stepped forward. "How dare you to barge into the garden of Japan's most beloved leader looking for priceless, so-called 'Philosopher Stones'! For love and justice, Sailor Moon and the sailor soldiers!"  
"The…."  
  
Vanguard turned to see the green monster's teeth gritting together at the sound of "Philosopher Stones".  
  
"In the name of the moon, you're punished!"  
"(_They know…._)" The words came out like bitter pills. "(_Then that means….._)"  
"(_What you thought before._0" Vanguard turned to the green monster. "(_But don't you worry, we'll get him for tricking us into thi-_)"  
  
Vanguard stopped when the green monster threw his hood off. He instantly knew what it meant.  
  
"_BEG!!!!_"  
  
---------------------------  
  
"Huh?!"  
  
Sailor Moon stared as the monster threw off its cloak. She gave a gasp as the full stature of the monster was revealed.  
  
"That's…."  
  
The green _thing_….as it looked like nothing created on Earth…stood up to its full (yet short) height, its emerald eyes staring dead at Sailor Moon.  
  
"wô`-†€¥§Œ®¶×£át"$!!!"  
"That looks like….." Uranus stared. "That creature from OSA-P…..but…it's _green_…"  
  
Suddenly, the pupils of the monster's eyes disappeared. He gave a roar as an aura surrounded him.  
  
"DUUUUCK!!!!!!"  
"Silent Wall!!"  
  
Saturn's Glaive smashed into the gigantic green mass of energy which emitted from the monster. Saturn grunted as she struggled to keep the shield up.  
  
"My….god….." Mercury looked in horror.  
  
_"It has supposedly been estimated that the power of the Philosopher Stones," The text had said, "is equal to that of twenty billion nuclear missiles. When unleashed, there might not be a way to stop it."_  
  
"Is this the power of the Philosopher Stones?!"  
"What do you mean?"  
"The book had said that the power of the Stones is to be feared, as no one knows of its true limits! Well….do you think….?"  
  
Uranus stared as the green monster powered down. It did not seem tired or hurt by the amount of energy it had exerted, though it caused the ceiling to cave in from the power.  
  
"Can it be…..this creature will be our deaths if we fail….?"  
  
Suddenly, one of the agents was thrown through a wall, screaming.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"  
  
With a defiant crash, the sound of fighting could be heard. Sailor Moon saw the snarl on the green monster's face deepen as he turned to the origin of the flying man.  
  
"g¡-AÕà©Ôy%4Ö^Ñ„ó…."  
  
Before the green monster could power up, however, Vanguard stopped him.  
  
"(_Leave him!_)" he shouted. "(_We can destroy him in the homeland. He wants to fight you there. Let the small fish get in his way for now, and you can strike him down in his moment of gloating!_)"  
  
Reluctantly, the green monster seemed to take Vanguard's advice, albeit in an angry fashion, by replacing his hood and cloak. With a flick of his hand the green monster disappeared with Vanguard.  
  
"God damn…"  
  
The sound of a swinging staff froze everyone as several more men ran out of the hole. The sailors snapped out of their awestruck state and began to attack the suspects, but Uranus simply stood, her fists clenched, and Sailor Moon stood next to her, staring.   
  
"It's him." Uranus' eyes flashed. "That bastard."  
"Uranus…" Sailor Moon desperately shook her head. "_Don't._"  
"No." Uranus looked back at her. "He will pay."  
  
Sailor Moon felt her heart sink at those words, though she could not explain why.  
  
"Come out," Uranus muttered. "Show yourself."  
  
After two minutes of screaming, fleeing agents and debris, the man himself came through the arches. He stopped when he saw the sailors, and he gave a smile.  
  
"I see you are here as well."  
"Damn you!!"  
  
Suddenly, Uranus was on him, and the staff went flying as Anonymous fell to the ground.  
  
"URANUS!!"  
"Stay out! You worthless piece of crap!" Uranus held him up. "I'll kill you!!!"  
"Worthless?"  
  
Suddenly, Anonymous turned the hands of Uranus onto herself, and the soldier was suddenly in a headlock, gasping for air.  
  
"I," Anonymous whispered in her ear. "I have been something far more worthy than what you can fathom inside that little female brain of yours. What I am doing is for your pitiful people; even though you are not worth saving."  
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"  
  
Uranus threw Anonymous to the ground again, drawing out her Space Sword as she did.  
  
"BASTARD!!" She screamed as she pointed the talisman. "YOU ARE NOT EVEN WORTH HALF OF WHAT A GRAIN OF SALT IS WORTH!!"  
"Heheheh…" Anonymous chuckled as he lay. "I suppose monkeys _can_ get you by surprise."  
  
Before Uranus had a chance to reply, Anonymous jumped up and kicked the sword out of her hands. It flew up and stuck into a crack in the ceiling.  
  
"You are just like a woman." Anonymous then slapped Uranus. "You should give up fighting and do something more productive. Like making babies."  
"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!"  
  
Uranus fought like a demon at those words. However, he was able to block all of her attacks. The two simply kept fighting, neither giving an inch.  
  
-----------------------  
  
"Burning Mandala!!"  
  
The remaining agents were captured or pursued by the soldiers. As Tuxedo Mask struck down another, he saw Sailor Moon staring at the fight between Uranus and Anonymous. Bits and pieces of the ceiling were raining down around them.  
  
"Usako…?"  
"Mamo-chan." Sailor Moon looked at him. "I have to stop this senseless fighting."  
"Usako?! He's an enemy!!"  
"I know, but…." _Maybe you think that, but….I sense something in him….something I cannot shake even after all of his tactics…_ "U..Uranus could be badly hurt!!"  
"USAKO!"  
  
Before anyone could stop her, Sailor Moon began to run towards the two combatants.  
  
"URANUS!! ANONYNMOUS!!" She screamed. "STOP!! STOP THIS!! WHY CAN'T YOU WORK TOGETHER?!?"  
  
Suddenly, a large chunk of concrete, unhinged from the ceiling by the Space Sword, fell down onto Sailor Moon.  
  
"USAKO!!!!!!!!!!!" Mamoru screamed.  
  
Sailor Moon knew she would be unable to outrun it, even though she started to. It almost felt as if someone had taken a screwdriver and stabbed her in the forehead with it. Nevertheless, Sailor Moon watched as Mamoru turned and angled, then was diagonal then sideways, just as her vision went from white to red, all of the colors of the rainbow, until there was nothing but black.  
  
-----------------------  
  
Anonymous and Uranus stopped their fighting at Mamoru's shout to see the chunk of concrete connect with Sailor Moon's head.  
  
"PRINCESS!!!!!"  
  
The other soldiers stopped their fighting to see Sailor Moon on the ground. Blood began to course from her head onto the marble floor.  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"   
  
Uranus began to run towards her, but was elbowed and kicked to the ground.  
  
"Leave her!!"   
  
Anonymous looked down at Uranus, stopping for a brief moment. Uranus took the opportunity to grab his left arm with her nails and pull him down. She saw the look of shock and pain on his face as she did so, and to that the sky soldier dug her nails even deeper.  
  
"**YOU** LEAVE HER!!!"  
  
The look went by as quickly as it had come, and Uranus's face connected with his fist. With a grunt, Uranus fell to the floor, unconscious.  
  
"YAAAH!!!"  
  
Before anyone else could go against him, Anonymous picked the injured Sailor Moon up and jumped up through the hole in the ceiling that was created by the sailors' entrance. A piece of paper dropped out of his sleeve as he summoned his staff, which flew to his hands from the ground.  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Despite the sailors' screams, Anonymous disappeared into the night, Sailor Moon in tow.  
  
-----------------------  
  
"This isn't good, Atrava."  
  
Vanguard looked at the green monster, who simply glared back at him from the other room. He turned back to the elder man, clicking his heels as he did, to find him looking at a newspaper..  
  
"What are you doing?"  
"What do you think I'm doing, boy?" Atrava chuckled. "This poll says 57 percent. Fifty-seven percent of the country opposes a Communist president this year. How sad."  
"Well, I'm supposing that you think that way…._mainly_ because you are the Communist in question?"  
"You _are_ better than I gave you credit for." Atrava looked at Vanguard with daggers. "You could have simply left the boy to his devices. Let him kill that fool who opposes us! It would have been suitable payback. Now we'll have to run through Russia to stop him from having _two_ Emeralds!"  
"Calm yourself, sir," Vanguard smiled. "You'll cut your life span by half with your mounting blood pressure. Besides, wouldn't it be _better_ to wait on killing him? Give him hope, then crush him? Especially if we have our boy over there kill him just when he thinks he has the gold. Play like your fellow Earthians! He'll never know what hit him!"  
Nothing was said for a moment as Atrava closed the paper up. Finally, Atrava looked at Vanguard, and chuckled while shaking his head.  
  
"Vanguard," he sneered. "You know as well as I do that my life span is the reason I'm doing this in the first place."  
"That's the spirit."  
"But you had better be right about this," Atrava walked off as he said this, "Or I'll do something to _your_ life span."  
  
------------------------  
  
The sailor soldiers looked down at the ground where Sailor Moon's blood lay. They were all numb with shock. No one could say a word as they thought of what had just happened.  
  
  
_The crash of concrete.  
  
Sailor Moon as she fell.  
  
Anonymous as he snatched Sailor Moon away from them, perhaps for good…_  
  
  
"……………………It's all his fault."  
  
Uranus was the first one to speak. Everyone looked at her, their eyes filled with hopelessness.  
  
"I'm going to find him," Uranus vowed. "I'll find him and tear him to pieces. He'll regret messing with us!!!"  
  
Mamoru, who had untransformed, slowly turned to walk away when his eye caught something in a shaft of moonlight which trickled from the whole in the ceiling.  
  
"What…?"  
  
The sailors turned around to see him pick up a tattered piece of paper. He picked it up, his face paling.  
  
"A information paper," he croaked. "_Versailles, 10 Svetlanskaya Street._" He turned to the soldiers. "Vladivostok."  
"Russia?" The words hit the soldiers.   
"He's going to Russia with her?" Jupiter looked at the others. "But…why?"  
"No. It makes sense." Mercury nodded. "The book. The agents that have been attacking. Russian. All of it, Russian. It makes sense."  
  
The realization began to sink in as they began to run out of the Emperor's Garden. They ran out into the streets and looked into the sky, the moon shining brightly.  
  
"The light of the moon has guided us again." Neptune looked at Mamoru. "Even without our princess, it still shows the way for us."  
"We've got to go, guys." Uranus looked at everyone. "To Russia! To save our princess!!"  
  



	5. Echidna

****

YEST IZ MOORAVYEY  
_(Echidna)_

  
  
_BEEEEEEEEEEEP.  
  
An impatient taxi driver honks a horn at a car in front of him that is going too slow. In halted accents, the driver yells things that are incredibly impolite to say on a normal basis. The businessman looks at his watch worriedly, because he knows, just as I know, that he will be late. I sit next to him, knowing that he will never mind me any.  
Finally, the car in front of him stops completely. For no reason. In the middle of traffic. The driver loses it and gets out of the car. He punches the side of the car in front of him, and a woman steps out, and the two begin to argue. I watch intently.  
  
_"Babushka!!"_ The taxi driver screams. _"Zhebost!!"  
"Ya zhebost nyemogushchey!!" _The woman screams in reply. _"Moy abtomobil yego ezlomanniy!!"_  
  
The man in the car suddenly decides that he can no longer stay, and he decides to dash out of the car and run off. I watch complacently as he runs off, knowing that long ago I had my time to catch men like him, though there were two differences between this boy and my prey. One, the men I dealt with were no men, and two, the crimes of this slick amateur are nothing compared to those I hunted.  
  
_"VOP!!!"_ The taxi driver sees this and, forgetting his fight, starts to run after the swindler. _"ASTANOVKA!! VOP!!!!!"_  
  
Such is a day in Vladovistok. A city in a country which still holds its secrets from the world. A place where one secret in particular is being held. One that I take interest in.  
I implore you, the keeper of the secret I seek. This is not right, boy. You know it as well as I do. You forced her to come here. It is your problem if she hates you for it, not mine. You were always one to take drastic action, to jump in head first, even if the pool was empty. Because you thought it was right to think that way.  
But it has always gotten you in trouble. This time you might have stepped too far. There are people who want to kill you because of it. When will you understand this? When you're dead? That is the worst time to do it, boy. I know this. It comes to no good when you realize your mistakes after it is too late to change anything. Mark my words. It's worse when you think you've been right the whole time._  
**  
**---------------------  
  
The world around her began to brighten as her eyes slowly opened. The softness of the pillow was enticing to fall back to, but it was still all for naught to her. She realized, as the sun began to set in her blurred vision, that she was asleep for hours.  
  
"Uuuuuuuuu..."  
  
Usagi's first instinct was to scream. Her head hurt like nothing before. She went to dull the pian with her hand, only to find that someone had bandaged it. As she realized this, she slowly sat up to find herself in a room she had never encountered before - small, somewhat tidy, and only one bed, which she occupied.  
_Mamo-chan...?_ Usagi's hand slowly went back to the sheets. _Where.....is this a dream?......_  
  
"You awake."  
Any thought that indicated a dream was shattered when Usagi heard the deep voice of a man she both admired and feared. Admired him for saving his life. Feared him for scaring her.  
The latter emotion came tumbling out as she began to scream.**  
**  
"ENOUGH!!" Anonymous' hand flew to her mouth. "I won't have you ruining my cover!"  
  
She stopped, and he slowly took his hand off. Usagi's heart turned cold when she felt him sit down behind her.   
_No. No....what is he doing....._   
**  
**"Hold still."  
"I thought you needed help..." Usagi's anger showed in her voice. "But this….!!!"  
"Silence." Anonymous cut her off. "I need to change your bandage."  
"Where am I?! Where have you taken me?!?!?"  
"If I told you, you would scream."  
"No I wouldn't." _I'll just call my friends on my communicator. Haruka was right; an enemy!!_  
"You are in Vladivistok."  
"Russia!!!"  
"We will be taking the Trans-Siberian Railway tomorrow." Anonymous tied the bandage around Usagi's head tightly. "And you, you will help me take the last Emerald."  
"What?!?"   
"I have brought you here to help me. Consider yourself…..a fall girl."  
  
Usagi froze when the words slipped from Anonymous's lips. She understood completely what he meant.  
  
"You mean….take the fall for _you_?!"  
"That is correct." Anonymous answered as if he kidnapped girls all the time. He took her arm. "You should get yourself ready and sleep. Wouldn't want the KGB to arrest a girl on no sleep. She's likely to be hurt….if you know what I mean…"  
  
The teasing tone that Anonymous took, combined with the head injury, was too much for Usagi.  
  
"NOOOOO!!!!" With all of her strength, she yanked her arm out of Anonymous's grip. She looked  
up at his surprised gaze. "I WILL DO NO SUCH THING FOR YOU!!!!"  
  
Without a second thought, Usagi's hands went to her pockets, only to find them empty except for her brooch.  
  
"Huh…!?! My watch…!!!!"  
"You wouldn't be looking for this, would you?"  
  
Usagi gasped as the man held up her communicator. With a squeeze of his hand, the communicator fizzed and crackled.  
  
"There is no hope to call your friends." The commmunicator dropped to the floor, crumbled like a piece of paper. "Do not even attempt it."  
"What do you want?!? How dare you do that to _my_ belongings!!"  
"They're no longer yours." The coldness in Anonymous's voice stunned her. "They belong to me now, just as you belong to me. And you will do as I tell you as well."  
"Why?!?"  
"You would not understand." Anonymous turned away from her. "But, in time, you will learn to obey me. You will learn."  
"I can understand. Tell me why you are doing this!"  
"Enough." Anonymous turned back to her. "There is nothing for you to know."  
  
Usagi's head went down in anger. _There must be some way. There must be some way…._  
  
"Well….at least…." Usagi found her voice after a moment. "At least allow me to get something to eat!"  
"And allot you the opportunity to call your friends?"  
"I don't know their phone numbers." _Well, that's only partially true. I know Minako's._ "I just want to get something to eat. Please."  
  
Anonymous took off his hat and flicked it onto bed before studying her face. Usagi stared at him, praying that he would allow her the pleasure of a few moments of freedom. It would be impossible for her to call any of her friends long distance in Russia, even with all of her money, and she prayed that he knew this.  
Finally, Anonymous looked up at Usagi, and his hand went into his jacket pocket. On Usagi's end, she was surprised to see such perfect bright blue eyes on such a man. The man himself looked much younger than she would have suspected him to be.  
  
"Very well." From his pocket came a bag with several hundred rubles. "I will give you one hour. If you fail to return, I will hunt you down and destroy you. And don't spend it all."  
"Yes."   
  
Usagi didn't scoff at his threat for a moment as she went out of the door. If he could defeat Uranus bare-fisted while the intimidating sky soldier welded the Space Sword and outwit the world's greatest security systems, she didn't doubt that he was capable of crimes unimaginable to the human race.  
  
---------------------  
  
Anonymous silently watched from the window as Usagi hailed a _yechat na tak-se_. She quickly sat in the back and drove off.  
_She'll be back. I could see that much in her eyes. _  
With a sigh, he closed the window and sat down on the bed, picking up his pack as he did. He was already regretting his action of kidnapping the girl and dragging her into his problems. But it had to be done. For more reasons than one.   
He spotted a black remote on the bed. Upon examining it, he decided that it must belong to the television, and so he clicked the _fperyo_ button.  
  
"_Chiem sloochay sorok na 'plot ezoomrood' vo Rasseya._" A reporter appeared on a newscast. "_Maskva vo nadabnost. Kakoy napraischazhdyeneet?_"  
  
_Fourty cases in Russia._   
Anonymous watched, his heart sinking as he saw the news cast switching to a hospital, where they showed several people being examined by a doctor in a hazard suit. All of the patients had dark discolored spots on their arms, faces, and bodies. All of the spots on the patients, green. Emerald green.  
_Fourty cases here. Twenty-seven in the United States, Three hundred in China. And three in Japan._ Anonymous remembered the statistics well, and paid no attention to the newscaster as he announced the symptoms and signs of the mysterious illness that was suddenly plaguing the world. _Almost a million cases of contamination in three weeks. They have no clue what is happening, do they? No clue._  
With a sigh, he changed the channel until he found a Japanese channel.  
  
"…..with respect to the family of Ata Nakitsu," the newscaster was saying, "We have waited until they were informed to release the news that the first person contaminated with the mysterious flesh-eating disease has died. It is unclear how he died and if it has to do with the disease that he acquired about two and a half weeks ago, but authorities are sealing off his body from the public until they are sure that it is safe-"  
  
-click-.   
The television turned off. Anonymous leaned over and unzipped the pack. He took out a box, and quietly began to open it up.  
_I must not give up hope._ Anonymous felt like screaming, but there was nothing he could do. _I cannot give up hope._  
The Heart of Hestia popped out as he finished, and he took it out, examining it. When he did, the room was filled with a green glow, and Anonymous immediately stuffed the jewel into its box, resealing it and placing it into the pack.  
_The Chaos Emerald._ Anonymous kept staring at the box long after he put it away. _For years, I thought they only existed in the world I lived in. But now I know the truth….and it makes it so much worse for me. It is because someone is gathering them together, someone who is using the Russian Mafia, that these accidents have occurred._ Anonymous let out a breath of frustration. _No human has ever been exposed to the true power of the Emeralds, and now their bodies cannot control the contamination when they come in contact with one or if they are contaminated though biological means. But….the question remains…..who? and how are they doing it?_  
Anonymous gave a sigh as he looked at his watch. It was 11 o'clock. He was used to long nights with no sleep, but he had had so many consecutive nights with no sleep that it dogged him. Finally, he stretched onto the bed and looked up at the ceiling. His mind was wandering, but at least he would be able to get a few minutes of shuteye before the girl came back.  
  
-----------------  
  
Usagi fumbled with her change purse as she paid the _yechat na tak-se _.  
  
"_Blagagavynost_," the driver said rudely before screeching away.  
  
_My heart is still fumbling…._ Usagi looked up at the hotel in confusion and shock, the food bag in her hand. _This man saved my life, only to subject it to a strange servitude from which I have no escape.  
  
"There is no hope to call your friends," the man had crushed the communicator with his hand. "Do not even attempt it. You are working for me now."  
  
I've been dragged into a land that I am unfamiliar with….all because of the Philosopher Stones. Why?….What is so important to this man that he would wander the earth, stealing jewels and kidnapping me?_  
Usagi's thoughts wandered as she entered the elevator. Two Japanese tourists entered with her as well.  
  
"Well, personally, it's rather sad." One said. "I mean, I wouldn't want to be his family right now."  
"Indeed." The other replied. "Imagine! They can't even bury him."  
"Sadly. I'm sure that Ata didn't want to leave."  
  
Usagi's eyes grew wide as she heard the name. _ATA?! Ata Nakitsu?? It can't be….dead?!?_  
  
"If it was because of that disease that turned him greener than grass," the tourist chuckled. "I guess I should feel bad to all the others who have it. We can hope that at least it will get rid of some unsavory people in this world."  
"I hope it does not get rid of _me_."  
  
_Naru._ Usagi held her head as the two laughing tourists changed the topic as they got off the elevator. _Oh no. Poor Naru. She's been infected. Now she might die too….if I don't get away from this man!! But…..I can't. Even with the money he gave me, it's not enough to get a boat or anything. I feel so hopeless……_  
  
As quietly as she could, she opened the door and entered the room, half expecting Anonymous to be there waiting for her. But he wasn't. He didn't seem to be in the room, as the lights were turned out.  
_That's strange._ Usagi scratched her head. _If he doesn't want me to try anything, wouldn't he be right here? Or maybe he thought I wouldn't get back so soon._  
As she walked into the room, she noticed that, in the closet, there was a small backpack. Upon opening it, she found several outfits of clothing that belonged to her, as well as a heavy jacket.   
_He packed my stuff._ Usagi took out several pieces of underwear and stared at them. _So this is where my clothing went. He took them!_  
  
"Lara….."  
  
Anonymous's voice froze Usagi, and she dropped the underwear on the floor. She turned towards the bed and saw that someone was stretched out, sleeping over the covers. She took a deep breath.  
  
"Anonymous," she managed to croak. "I'm here."  
  
No reply. She tiptoed over to the bed and said it louder.  
  
"Anonymous……I'm….."  
  
Usagi stopped dead in her tracks. The person on the bed, the origin of the voice, wasn't even a person. It was something else.   
Her mouth opened as she saw that stretched out on the bed was not Anonymous, but a small red _thing_, similar to the red creature she saw in OSA-P. This one, however, didn't wear shades, and it didn't wear the smock that the creature in the shop had. In fact, not only was it not wearing anything, it even had an accessory that the other _thing_ didn't have - a small goatee.  
There were plenty of differences between the one she saw there and this one, but the species was definitely the same. Usagi's shock turned into fascination. The creature really looked at peace while it was sleeping, it's small thin red body moving up and down as it breathed. Usagi leaned over it and began to compare the _thing_ to other beautiful animals in her mind - like dogs that had puffy fur - and when she began to wonder how the creature had gotten into the room…that's when it hit her.  
_Wait a minute._ Usagi took several steps back when realization began to dawn on her. _There were two I had a key. Anonymous had the only other key. Then that means…._  
  
"Huh?!"  
  
Usagi's foot caught onto the strap of Anonymous's bag, and as she took another step back she tripped over it and fell backwards, the pack flying up into the air.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!"  
  
With a scream, Usagi fell flat on her butt, only to notice that a box labeled "FRAGILE" had also flown out of the pack and was on a crash course with the floor. With a scream, she threw herself to catch it, her arm stretched as far as she could get it. She shut her eyes.  
  
"OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Suddenly, just as her hand was just about to catch the box, she could feel an indescribable pain as something rammed into her hand. She gave another yell, only this one was in agony, as it felt like knives stabbing into her palms that were only driving deeper into her skin. Her eyes flew open to see what had happened.  
Gasping hard, as he had only just been awoken by Usagi's screams and had only a split second to catch the box and its contents, the creature held the box in his hand, which was right above Usagi's. In shoving his hand in to grab it, however, his knuckles had ripped into Usagi's skin. Whimpering, Usagi grabbed her hand and dislodged it out of the creature's. Blood oozed from two large lines in her skin, which reached from her fingers to the lumpy muscles at the bottom of her palm, just before the wrist.  
Without another moment, Usagi jumped up and stared at the creature, holding her hand as she did.  
  
"You…!!"  
"Me?" Anonymous' voice came from the creature. "You were the one who nearly destroyed this city."  
"What do you mean?!" Usagi became angry. "What's in that box that's so dangerous?!?"  
"The item you are going to help me retrieve."  
"Oh yeah?" Usagi's uninjured hand went to her pocket. "And where exactly are we going?"  
"I can't tell you."  
"Oh, really? Well, you have no choice!!" Usagi found her brooch, which strangely enough hadn't been taken from her. "Tell me, or you'll regret it!!"  
"Go ahead, then." Anonymous the _thing_ stood up on the bed. His knuckles were drenched in her blood. "Use your crystal and kill me, Sailor Moon. But if something happens to this world it will not have been me who was responsible. It would have been you who brought the plagues!"  
  
Usagi froze.  
  
"What?"  
"You heard me." Anonymous folded his arms, his head going down as he did. "Kill me, and your world will die."  
  
Usagi's hand tightened on her brooch. She took it out and raised it up. _He knows. There's no use hiding anymore…_  
  
"Why is it I don't believe you!?! Silver Moon Crystal Power!! Make-Up!!!!!"  
  
Anonymous' expression did not change as Usagi turned into Sailor Moon. He simply looked at her, and even when she took out her tier and pointed it towards him he didn't flinch.  
  
"Tell me what you want with me, or I'll…I _will_kill you!!" Sailor Moon glared at him. "Uranus was right, you _are_ the enemy!"  
"Am I?"  
"Kidnapping me, holding me against my will….yes!!! I call that evil!! Despicable!!"  
"Then what happened to Naru because of the Mafia…" Anonymous looked up at Sailor Moon. "That is not evil and despicable?"  
  
Sailor Moon's eyes grew wide at this. Her hand trembled as she held the tier.  
  
"I brought you here, yes." Anonymous continued. "To help me. When you wanted food, I gave you several hundred rubles. It was more than enough to call one hundred people in your country. Yet you didn't. I can see it in your eyes." Sailor Moon's eyes began to water as he said this, mainly in frustration because Anonymous knew he was right. "If I were evil, wouldn't you have left me and called on your friends to destroy me? Tell me that you would have if you truly thought I was evil!!"  
  
The tier clanked to the floor, and the owner of the floor simply clenched her fists, even though it was painful to do so with her right hand.   
  
"You're right," she moaned. "I didn't. Because I thought I could trust you to do the right thing. To tell me. But how do I know now what you think is the right thing?!"  
  
Anonymous was stunned to hear this as Sailor Moon began to cry. The words hit him like a ton of bricks, and he took a few paces back on the bed, even though he nearly fell doing so. Regaining his balance, he slowly got off the bed and walked over to Sailor Moon.  
  
"Give me your hand."  
"Huh?" Sailor Moon's tear-streaked face looked back up at him. "Why?"  
"You're hurt." There was an obvious change of tone from before. "You need something for your hand."  
  
----------------------  
  
It was a turnaround that Usagi hadn't seen until now, as the creature finished bandaging her hand up. She wasn't sure whether it had been what she had said or done in the past hour that had caused the strange change of heart, but whatever it was, it had had a palpable effect on Anonymous.  
  
"There." Anonymous nodded. "It's finished."  
  
Usagi stared at her hand. It was completely bandaged, similar to her head. She figured that at the rate she was going she would be completely bandaged by the time everything was done.  
  
"Wait." Usagi saw him starting off towards the bathroom, a pile of clothing in tow. "What are you doing?"  
"Changing."  
"Changing back….into a human."  
"Yes," Anonymous finally said after a moment.  
"Why won't you stay in that form? I don't care anymore." _Now that I know…._  
"It's not you I'm worried about."  
  
The last sentence was in a slightly worried tone as Anonymous disappeared into the bathroom and closed the door. Looking down at her hand, Usagi sighed.  
_If it's not me you are worried about…._ She closed her eyes. _No. You are not the enemy. You seemed cold, and hard, but you are only that to save yourself and…and others. Who is the real enemy? What am I fighting against? And….what are you? Oh, Mamo-chan…_ Usagi's thoughts carried back to when she saw Anonymous laying in the bed. _I have seen a creature that could not have been like anything created on Earth. I wish that I could learn the secrets of the box, and what it has to do with the Philosopher Stones. I wish, and hope, that I will learn what is tearing our world and the people in it apart! To unravel the new crisis….my new mission!_  
Usagi silently put her hands together, closed her eyes, and contemplated. She did not notice the soft light creeping from under the bathroom door, nor did she notice the rain that suddenly blew onto the window as the night dragged on.**  
**


	6. Dreams

****

MYECHTY  
_(Dreams)_

The wind brings trouble.  
  
I can smell it in the air, and on the water. Great trouble coming. I may not have been the best guardian, but never let it be said that my senses were not so keen as those after me.  
  
Its everywhere here, both in our domain and yours. A feeling of doom and forebodance. The premonition of death. A scream in the night, and a blast of light.  
  
What had happened? There was so much destruction that day, you who carries my blood. I see you on the battlefield, crying for the one thing you treasured most in life. And you know whose fault it was for all of this. Yours. What you you think happens when you put the power of the gods in your hands?  
  
It's too late to turn back time now, though. Your son is gone. It will take something beyond your power to bring him back to you. You don't know it yet, but there are things I can see that you can't - your dreams showed you so little of what was to come.  
  
So, sleep well tonight, descendant. Echidnapolis was just the first sip from your tangled cup of sorrow.  
  
----------------  
  
"Anything yet?"  
"No."   
"Keep searching. There must be _something._"  
"You search if you think you can do a better job," Mercury replied. "Until I have definite information to ascertain everything we're up against, you'll just have to wait.  
  
Save for Mercury and Mars' bickering, Central Command was quiet. The crying of the soldiers at their failure to save their princess from the mysterious thief was long gone, and now, all they could do was sit and wait for Ami's assessment.  
  
"Why are we waiting here?" Uranus finally spoke, and when she did her teeth were clenched together. "We should be following that rat to Vladivostok."  
"Not until we can ascertain a complete connection with this guy and the agents." Neptune's hand went on Uranus' shoulder. "Remember. Anonymous."  
"I don't care if he's anonymous." Uranus' face darkened. "I know his form. I can find him without worry of him being faceless even if he is nameless. At least I can if we stop delaying."  
"Any luck?" Neptune turned to Mercury. "What are you doing now?"  
"I'm hacking into the FBI database." Everyone's eyes widened. "A bit desperate, but certainly they must have something on this...."  
  
Maercury's hands typed frantically for several minutes, as various pages popped onto the bright screen. Everyone watched intently, unsure of the probable success of the venture.  
  
"Where's Mamoru?" Venus suddenly whispered into Mars' ear. "I'm really worried about him. He seemed completely zoned out."  
"Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn took him back to his apartment to calm him down," Mars replied in a low voice. "Once we're finished with this, we'll pick him up. Then, to the airport."  
"A-HA!"  
  
Merciry gave a smile as a docket page suddenly popped up onto the screen. It took five minutes to load completely; when it did, everyone read what was on it:  


****

FBI TOPIC FILE  
Most Wanted Criminals

  
  
NAME: Unknown  
CRIMINAL NAME: "Anonymous"  
AGE: Mid to late thirties  
WEIGHT: 190-220 lbs.  
HEIGHT: At least 6'' tall  
HAIR: Red  
EYES: Blue  
CLOTHING: Clothing of choice for operations are white kimono top, black undershirts, baggy khaki, hat, trenchcoat  
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Unknown, but should be Russian for media outlet  
WEAPON: Staff of unknown material with razor on end  
CHARGE: Robbery of a national institution, breaking and entering, robbery, arson, murder, attempted murder, conspiracy, treason, espionage, hacking, terrorism, "alien" invasion, unspecifiable other threats to national security  
  
_Fugitive is Type-1 alien and Type 1 terrorist with 51 interest. Has a close unspecified connection to Russian mafia. Has interests in priceless jewelery and has successfully stolen the "Heart of Hestia" from the Mertopolitam Musuem of Art. More than likely close connection to _P Emerald_ as specifed in File 478546384-R, political crime, "Papu Atrava" file. Subject seems rounded in martial arts, weapon expertise, espionage and spy technique. Likely El-Alamein refugee. Fluently speaks English, Japanese, Russian, German, Polish, French, Arabic, Chinese. May have expertise in other language area(s). May frequent Russia often in relation to connection to Atrave and _P Emerald.  
  
This is a Red-Alert-level subject for national security Consider him ARMED and EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.   
  


  
  
"Add 'kidnapping' to the docket." Everyone stared. "Woah, this guy is some commodity...!"  
"No ordinary thief, for certain." Neptune gave a smirk. "If he wasn't a hated enemy right now, I'd almost admire him. He should be looking into fighting for the _right_ side with his talents."  
"That is, if he knows the difference." Uranus stared at the docket.  
"This whole thing is getting more and more confusing." Mercury rubbed her chin. "This guy looks like he's with the Russian mob..."  
"He looks like, more than anything, a disgruntled employee." Mars looked at the other sailors. "I sense something about this guy.....something very violent from his past."  
"Well, if its murder he's wanted for, let's not have the princess as his next victim."  
  
Everyone looked at Venus at this. She started to sweat, and she gave a nervous chuckle.   
  
"Well....who wants to call everyone to the airport?"  
  
---------------------  
  
The city of Vladivostok, famed port of eastern Russia, was still busy in the deepest darkness of the night. It was 2:30 in the morning; the rain had stopped, replaced by light snow. Cars still honked down on the lit streets, though they were far fewer in number than before. The city lights themselves seemed dim, made lower by the dense night fog that accompanied the change in weather.  
  
_Having pleasant dreams...?_  
  
Anonymous slowly entered the hotel room again, taking care not to slam the door. He was in human form again, though he had abandoned the white robe and trenchcoat, instead wearing a black turtleneck with his pants. Moving in stealth he put down the bag that he carried.  
  
_I wish you well on that, Usagi._ With a sigh, he looked over at the bed, where Usagi lay sprawled out. _At least you can sleep well in such times._  
  
A slight snore came from the girl as she rolled over. Her hand flew at the end table, knocking several items onto the floor. Among them was her brooch, which landed with a clatter.  
  
"Maaaaamochaaaaaaan...."  
  
With several quiet movements, Anonymous quickly took up the brooch and other items which had dropped, placing them back on the table. The one thing he did not replace was the TV remote. Looking over quietly, he took up the bag again, bringing out a wrapped sandwich with a dark brown meat. He took a bit of it and switched the TV on.  
  
"**_Lrodolzhyeneeye na noctorne mai slyedovane......_**" Anonymous' mind, always keen and fast, translated the news as soon as each syllable came from the reporter's mouth. "**_.....in St. Katharos and other cities across Russia, resistance grows as the people line the streets. The subject of protest - Papu Atrava, beloved to the communists, but hated by all who stand for more democratic candidates. Opposition grows in light of his refusal to disclose information about key military projects which may have included human experimentation. Kremlin officials are calling for...._**"  
  
_Human experimentation _indeed. With a bitter glare, Anonymous turned away from the television. _I would like to see their expressions if they ever found out the extent. They never will, though.....fools...._  
  
The man promptly inhaled the rest of his sandwich, throwing the remnants of paper away with a half-hearted flick of his hand. It had been a long day for him; after the nap he had, he could not get back to sleep. He rubbed his eyes, his glance resting onto the bed once more.  
  
Then, for reasons he could not completely understand, he simply stared and sat as the girl slept. There was a rhythm to her body, a soft curve to her laying on the bed, that the thief could not help but ponder if, somehow, his own body was in harmony with hers in some fashion. Was there a magic that connected them? Surely, he knew there was; he had seen her face before, back in the time before this, when he was at his weakest and most helpless, at his most wretched.  
  
_"But how do I know now what you think is the right thing?!"_  
  
So it was that he watched her sleep, watching her perfect body move up and down like waves on the calm sea. And as he examined closer her body, Anonymous suddenly felt a pang of emotion rise up in him again - one of total lust and turn on. He was envisioning her naked - not hard to do, as he had seen her as such.  
  
As soon as he did, he felt an incredible urge come to him, and he had to close his eyes as he felt his hands and his lower body parts tremble. He had captured her, she was his captive. She was his slave tonight. She was sleeping there, so what would it matter to feel her soft, warm body in his arms? The dark-haired boy, Mamoru, could not have been her first venture into love - and perhaps it wouldn't be her last. Besides which, Anonymous was no man; he belonged to another order, one that looked down on humans. What wrong was there to have his way with a lower specimen of thought, especially one as desirable as a princess?  
  
_Those eyes....th......those....oh my god her.......ni....n......**NO. STOP IT.**_  
  
He gave a pained groan as he shoved his more primitive inhibitions aside. _She belongs to someone else, you stupid old fool!_ he violently chided himself. _You get aroused over a little girl, you sick man.....who's the better one, churl?_   
  
He took deep, deep breaths, growling at himself for losing himself for the moment. But though he could stifle his body's desire, his mind still whirled. He realized his face was still beet red, he almost slobbered all over himself, and not only that, he had hardened. He buried his face in his hands, letting out an anguished moan.  
  
_What am I doing.....WHY do I feel this way about her....why I can't I just......touch her.....why am I......like this.....?  
  
"....You."   
  
She was dressed all in white, her blonde hair blowing in the wind. It was a clear night, and in this fantasy, _he_ was there with Usagi.   
  
"Go away." Usagi looked frightened, just as she had when she woke up to find out she was in Russia. "You're scaring me!"   
"...No." He took several steps forward. He was dressed in his Anonymous garb, looking just as he did in real life. "I.....I have to show you something."   
  
Soon, Usagi was practically pinned up to the wall. She was staring into his eyes, as he was mere inches away, and she looked more frightened than ever.   
  
"G-go away!"   
  
His hand touching hers sent a chill down her spine. She looked down at it, then at him, confused. Slowly, reluctantly, she accepted it, and was slowly brought over to him by the gentle force of his pull.   
  
"I don't want to hurt you." His voice was low. "Thats the truth."   
  
Her head rested on his chest, and she took several deep breaths, closing her eyes at this. He knew she felt something as well, something that connected them together. What it was, he didn't know.   
  
"I...." His hand slowly, softly brushed over her cheek as an artist took his brush on his most cherished painting. "I just wanted you close like this....always.....I've never felt like this.....until you.....so complete."   
  
She looked up at him, unable to reply. She stared up at his dark, silent face with those beautiful blue eyes. Even in the darkness, they looked as bright as the ocean on a clear summer day.   
  
"But....why...?"   
".....Your warmth."   
  
His arms were then around her, as if trying to cloister the warmth of their bodies together, as if he wished to smother her so that all she felt was his heat. Yet now, he wanted to hold her, and just to hold her, so that he could cling to the one wonderful thing in his life, even if it was for one vain, brief moment in his cursed existence.   
  
But it was a dream, and it was a lie, and Locke knew it. _  
  
"I love you," he said silenty to the sleeping soldier. His fantasy vanished at that moment, and he turned away. "I'm sorry..."   
  
With that, he quietly left the room without another word, leaving the TV on.   
  
---------------   
  
"Mamoru! Makoto! Setsuna!"  
"No one's answering. Hotaru?!"  
  
There were several fists that banged on the door to the apartment. Finally, after several moments, the soldiers simply barged in.  
  
"Mamoru...."  
  
The girls were met with darkness and the sound of weeping. Looking determined, Uranus started out towards the kitchen, where the sound had come from, when she stopped.  
  
"Mamoru...?"  
  
Mamoru sat at the table, looking silent and dejected. Setsuna and Hotaru were across from him, looking shocked. The weeping, in turn, was from Makoto, who was hovering over the counter.  
  
"What's going....?"  
  
The soldiers then noticed the telephone on the wall. Its reciever was ripped out, and it was in Makoto's hands. They all became silent, and the room became cold to them.  
  
"It.....Naru." As a seeming result of the clouds, a faint and eerie green light seemed to illuminate the moon. "She's dead."  
  



	7. Train

****

VOSNYATVIVAV

__

(Train)

  
The white queen took the black horse.  
  
"Your turn."  
"Mmmm hmm." Vanguard nodded. "I must admit, Mr. Atrava, your skills in this game are impeccable."  
  
The two sat in Atrava's parlor, playing chess. Vanguard rubbed his hand under his chin.  
  
"I wonder how it is that you always beat me in this game."  
"Heh." Atrava's pawn took a bishop. "For one thing, you are not Russian. We have many people who know their chessboards."  
"Being one nationality should not assure that it has the advantage over others." Vanguard chuckled.  
"Oh, but in some cases, it is true." Atrava snapped a finger. "Silvia."  
"_Da?_"  
"_Chay_" Atrava turned to Vanguard. "What would like, Mr. Vanguard?"  
"Whatever you are having. Tea is fine."  
"_Silvia. Chays dva._"  
"I wonder what you mean, Mr. Atrava." Vanguard looked at Silvia as she left. "You wouldn't happen to mean the Stones….or should I say the Emeralds."  
"That is exactly what I mean." Atrava looked up at him. "Your kind has the power to be immune to the more dangerous aspects of the Emeralds. You've been using them for years. The people of _here_," at this he waved his hand around the room, "These people have never known the power they hold. They're not used to being exposed to it, and their bodies shrivel up when they come in contact."  
"As a matter of fact, I should know this." Vanguard nodded to the cloaked Green Monster, who simply nodded back. "One touch from my man over there, whose infected with the energy, and Earth people turn into limes. One actually died this week."  
"A shame." Atrava didn't seem particularly sympathetic. "Like in chess. If you don't know what you're getting into, you're likely to get burned."  
"Like chess?"  
"Well, in a matter of speaking." Atrava nodded. "Let's think of ourselves as generals of opposing armies for my example. Our objective is to save the king and queen from each other. In order to achieve that mean, you must have cunning, you must have intelligence, and you must have ruthlessness when it comes to capturing as many of the opponent's people as possible. If you don't know the opponent well enough, then you will find yourself caught in their trap."  
"An interesting observation." Vanguard smiled. "I have the feeling you are implying someone else with your theory. It wouldn't be me, would it?"  
"Well…." Atrava snickered. "You can say I am implying a certain person. He should be extra careful when navigating my chessboard, or he's likely to be caught by my players."  
  
  
The black queen took the bishop. Then the white pawns surrounded and took the queen. Checkmate for the king.  
  
-----------------------  
  
Usagi scratched her newly dyed hair. Being in disguise was slightly annoying, especially since the chemicals caused her scalp to itch like crazy.   
_Stop scratching._ She glanced over at the group of men at a bench nearby as she put her hand down. _They'll get suspicious._  
  
"_Privyet, Gaspaden_." The man at the ticket station nodded. "_Kakfar?_"  
"_Dva na Svyatoy Kyasherosh_."  
  
The snow was beginning to fall on the crowds waiting for the train. Anonymous, his hair tied up and under his coat, waited quietly as he typed in a few words in the computer.  
  
"_Da._" the ticket man nodded. "_Imyetem dastatok na va. Emya?_"  
"_Sanuu Hokuyoshi._"  
"_Yaponya oto? Intyeresnay. Chiem emya droogoy?_"  
"_Sanuu Keira_."  
  
Usagi heard the names, and understood that in Russia that was to be her name. _Keira Sanuu._ She made sure to memorize name. _It feels so strange. Ever since he bandaged my hand up last night….I don't feel like a hostage. I feel like I'm a spy, and that Anonymous is my partner. And yet…._  
Usagi noticed the group of men looking at her again out of the corner of her eyes. She turned around to see them in full view, but found their heads turned down towards their newspapers.  
_I feel like those men are watching me here…_  
  
"_Adabryenyeyoo vash pasport._" The man nodded. "_Platet_."  
  
Deftly, Anonymous took out the money and handed it to the ticket man, who spurted out directions in Russian as to how they could get to the platform. Finally, with a sigh of relief and an adjustment to his pack, Anonymous returned to Usagi's handing her a passport with her picture in it, as well as a white ticket.  
  
"Don't lose these." Anonymous clasped her hand over the papers. "If you lose them, you will not be able to get through the checkpoints."  
"Okay. Anonymous…."  
"Yes?"  
"I….don't feel safe here. I think those men over at that bench are staring at us."  
"That's why we are leaving." Anonymous unclasped her hand and started to walk. "We are going to Saint Katharos."  
"Saint Katharos?"  
"A former Red Army base." Anonymous turned around and motioned for her to walk. "Several hundred miles east of St. Petersburg in the Crimea region."  
"Is that where….." Usagi ran up to him, grabbing his hand. She didn't see Anonymous' face, which turned bright red, when she did this. "…the last Stone is?"  
"No. At least I don't believe so." Anonymous shook his head as he felt his face heat up. "But there is something I must do, regardless. There is something I must know."  
  
Usagi nodded as they waited in line to get on the train. _Every minute that passes, it's so strange…I feel as if I can trust him again, just as I did that night in the museum. But…._ She shuddered at the thought of the men. _Even though we are walking away from them, it's almost like they are still watching…_  
  
----------------------  
  
The phone rang in Atrava's room as Vanguard and Atrava looked up at it.  
  
"That would be them." Atrava stood up and walked out of the room. "Wait in here. We'll have some news yet."  
  
Vanguard's finger circled the rim of the teacup as Atrava's shadow disappeared.  
  
"(_There is something about that man._)"  
"(_Of course there is, my friend._)" Vanguard replied with a smile towards the Green Monster's cloak. "(_It's called power. And he wants it._)"  
"(_That's not what I meant._)" The Green Monster's Mobian face showed his disgust. "(_He seems like the kind of man who hates _him_ as much as I do._)"  
"(_Patience._)" Vanguard pointed his thumb towards the door. "(_If all goes well you may do with your hated nemesis as you please. But not yet. Not as long as I have any say with it._)"  
"(_You only care about the monetary value of this mission. You care nothing of my desires._)"   
"(_Now, that's not true. If I didn't care about you I would have simply left you to die._)"  
  
The Green Monster's face visibly darkened at this, even under his cloak. However, he simply sat and said nothing more as Atrava re-entered the room.  
  
"Our man is back in Russia. Figures he would return." Atrava smiled. "He thought he fooled us with leading us in Japan. He will see how wrong he truly was."  
  
------------------------  
  
Usagi watched as the plains of snow rolled by the train, her backpack next to her on the next seat. She gave a sigh as the snow began to accumulate the further away they got from Vladivistok.  
_He left a while ago._ Usagi looked at her bag and took out her passport. She examined the carefulness and pains that Anonymous had taken to make the passport as authentic as possible. _Oh, Mamo-chan. He is so strange. But I think I have touched something in him. I'm not sure how…_  
Usagi looked at her bandaged hand again as she thought this.  
  
_"You're right," Sailor Moon had shouted. "I didn't. Because I thought I could trust you to do the right thing. To tell me. But how do I know now what you think is the right thing?!"  
  
But perhaps the right thing to me is not the same right thing to him. I still wish he would tell me what he is doing…and what is in that box._  
After a few more moments of contemplation, she heard the door open. In came Anonymous, a bottle of peroxide and a wrap of bandage in his hand.  
  
"It's been twelve hours…..I need to change your bandage."  
"Ok."  
  
Usagi held out her hand to him as he took out a pair of scissors and began to carefully cut off the older bandage.  
  
"Ow." Usagi winced.  
"Sorry about that. It's a large wound."  
"No, you're stepping on my foot."  
"Oh." Anonymous's face turned red when he realized she was right. "I'm sorry about that."  
"That's ok."   
  
The bandage came off, and the injury looked even worse than she thought it would. It had all sorts of colors in it - yellow, white, red, black. Usagi almost thought she could see her muscle through the bottom of the gashes, the place where Anonymous' knuckles…._at least I think that's what they were_…had lodged deepest.  
  
"Damn." Anonymous gave a sigh, his face grim. "Your hand muscle's slightly ripped."  
"It is?"  
"Yes." Anonymous looked at it closely. "I'm going to have to see if there's a doctor on the train."  
"Wait."  
  
Usagi shook her head. With her good hand she took out her brooch and handed it to him.  
  
"Take this."  
"To the doctor?"  
"No. Sit down. I have an idea."  
"If it involves you turning in to Sailor Moon…"  
"No." Usagi shook her head. "Just open it up."  
  
Anonymous reluctantly did as she asked, and the Silver Crystal popped up.  
  
"Take out the crystal, and hold it over my hand."  
  
Anonymous carefully did so. Usagi nodded and closed her eyes. After a few seconds of nothing happening, Anonymous looked up from the crystal and up towards Usagi.  
  
"Nothing's happening."  
  
Usagi didn't reply. A flicker of white sparked from the crystal, electrocuting Anonymous.  
  
"Aaah!!"   
  
Anonymous jerked his hand away, but it didn't matter that he was no longer holding it; it was floating over Usagi's hand. A halo appeared around the crystal, illuminating the entire room.  
  
"What….is this?" As Anonymous stared at Usagi, the moon sign appeared on her forehead. "Is this part of your power too…"  
  
Suddenly, a ripple of pure magic energy shot out from the crystal, and as Anonymous shielded his eyes, he could see Usagi's skin wrapping around the gash. The small muscle strands unlaced and re-laced together, before being covered by the skin. Within the time frame of a few seconds, the hand was completely healed.  
The light disappeared from the crystal, and the room became normal once more. With a sigh, Usagi fell back to the chair, huffing. Anonymous rubbed his head in confusion.  
  
"Phew…." She gasped. "That took a lot out of me."  
"You….you just…."  
  
As Anonymous turned to comprehend the strange power, he noticed that his pack was glowing a green color. With a shout he quickly opened the pack and saw that the box had turned green.  
  
"The Emerald!!"  
"Huh?"  
  
Anonymous opened the box and stared at the contents. The jewel was glowing brightly, and vibrating as it had never done before.  
  
"What…..is it doing….but I can sense no power coming from it now."  
"What is that?"   
  
Usagi wobbly stood up and looked over Anonymous' shoulder in time to see the Heart of Hestia glow, then flicker and be still.  
  
"The Heart of Hestia…." Usagi looked at Anonymous. "You stole it?"  
  
Anonymous turned to her in surprise. It was obvious that he did not expect her to recover so quickly.  
  
"………Yes."  
"Is that what you're trying to protect from the enemy? The Heart of Hestia?"  
  
Anonymous did not reply. Usagi bit her nails, hoping that she did not anger him as he put away the box.  
  
"Please, Anonymous." Usagi decided to say something else after a moment. "I'm involved too. When you saved me, you brought me into your problems. So there's no going back. I've seen it. The Philosopher Stone. Am I right in saying that that's what it really is?"  
  
There was still no reply. Usagi's head went down in frustration.  
  
"They're not the Philosopher Stones." Anonymous' voice finally came out. "At least, that's not what they are known to the people of my world."  
"Your world?"  
"Yes."  
"What are they known as in your world?"  
"………….They are known as…………….Chaos Emeralds."  
  
Anonymous wasn't so sure that telling the girl was the right thing; after all, it was his mission and he was supposed to be having her take the fall for it. Yet he could not deny her the information for some reason. It almost felt like he _had_ to tell her.  
  
"The most powerful gems in the universe. Bringing them together will result in power unimaginable to anyone here."  
"Here on Earth?!? Is that…..in the box…..Anonymous! How did they get here?!?"  
"They were always here," Anonymous replied. "At least, as far back as could be imagined. There is an old legend in your world, about the dinosaurs and a meteor. That is when I believe that they first were brought to Earth. It was the same for us, only ours came from further back."  
  
Usagi looked down, then looked back up.  
  
"Then that book…."  
"Yes. When I concocted my plan to…" the word was hard to push out. "use one of you as my cover, I decided that the book would serve as an invaluable guide when we were together."  
"But why are you so determined to take the Sto….I mean, the Emeralds? Is it because you desire power?"  
"Hah." Anonymous gave a hard laugh. "Why would I be here if I could simply go into my backyard where I come from and dig one up? I would certainly not have even given this planet a second thought if I had been given any choice."  
  
Usagi looked confused for a moment. The more she thought of his words, however, the more she began to figure out.  
  
"Are you….someone who _guards_ these types of Emeralds?"  
"Yes. I am."  
"So _that's_ how you know so much about them."  
"I do not know so much about them compared to others," Anonymous replied. "I only know what I have been taught, or what I have learned. I only know so much about the Emeralds of this world because I have seen them used in my world. And I know enough to have come to this realization: the Chaos Emeralds are very dangerous in the wrong hands. Which is what I am trying to prevent."  
"Do you know who the enemy is? The people who are trying to gather the Emeralds."  
"No. But it makes it all the more urgent. If the person acquiring the Earth Emeralds wants to unleash its power on this planet…which I think they do…."  
  
Anonymous' voice trailed off at this. Usagi noticed fear jumping into his blue eyes.  
  
"The people of this Earth are not used to being exposed to such power," he said softly. "That is why it is so urgent."  
  
_"I don't know….." Naru had shaken her head. "All I know is, I felt a scrape against my arm from this cloaked man, and that was about it."_  
  
"Thousands of people are beginning to come down with something that your doctors call 'emerald flesh' - people suddenly finding their skin changing color while experiencing flu-like symptoms, which escalates to symptoms similar to those that are associated with radiation sickness." The scenery whizzing by the train in the window began to look more foreboding to Usagi at this. "That is no radiation, or at least not ordinary radiation to you. It is the power of the Chaos Emeralds, brought onto their body. Perhaps in small doses the energy will not be harmful. But because humans have never been presented with the true power of the Emeralds their bodies are reacting violently to something they cannot get rid of. Eventually, all of those infected will die, their body no longer able to fight something they cannot possibly win against."  
"So there is….no cure." The words tumbled out of Usagi like a bitter pill. "No way to save them."  
"No." Anonymous looked out of the window. "I….did not wish to tell you because I knew that I would have to tell you this, and that your friend is also infected. But I will tell you this as well: the only ones affected were those associated with museums and jewelry stores."  
  
Usagi looked at him, her face shocked.  
  
"They thought Naru had the Emerald? And Ata Naritsu.."  
"They sensed a special power in your country," Anonymous replied, "And they thought that the last Emerald was located there. When Hitler was defeated, the seven Emeralds were scattered onto each of the seven continents. They have yet to find the one hidden here, in Asia, but even I thought that it could be in Japan….though when I found nothing I did not understand. I used it to my advantage to try to fool those dark forces who were attracted to the power as well, but I still did not comprehend. Now, however, I know the power that attracted me to Japan. I learned its identity this morning."  
"This morning…"  
  
Usagi looked down at her brooch. She opened it up and looked at the crystal.  
  
"My crystal."  
"Yes." Anonymous looked at it as well. "I still do not understand completely, but it also caused the Emerald in my pack to react, though I don't know exactly how it did. Perhaps your crystal has a power that affects the Emeralds."  
"A power to affect the Emeralds…" Usagi looked up at Anonymous. "Anonymous…."  
"Usagi?"  
"What is your real name?"  
"My…._real_ name?"  
"Yes."  
"It's not as good as yours," Anonymous replied without thinking.  
"It isn't?"  
"Umm…." Anonymous turned red again when he realized his mistake and covered his mouth. "I mean…."  
"It's okay." Usagi smiled. "I find it nice that you like my name."  
"…………well, if you truly must know….." Anonymous gave a smile. "My real name is Locke."  
"Locke." Usagi silently memorized it as she repeated it. "I like it."  
  
She turned back to look outside, unaware of Locke's face, which turned another shade redder at her comment. With a giddy smirk on his red face he turned to the window as well.  
  
-----------------  
  
Night came as Usagi and Locke sat down to dinner.  
  
"This looks pretty….interesting." A bowl of stroganoff was placed in front of them. "Have you ever tried this, Locke?"  
"Mmm-hmm."  
  
Locke was looking out the window. Outside, the full moon glowed and reflected off of the snow-covered ground. He seemed engrossed with scenery, and he didn't hear Usagi's next questions.  
  
"Locke? Are you ok?…..Locke?"  
"_OOBLYOODOK_!!"  
  
A loud crash threw Usagi's attention from Locke to a scene behind her. Two men had gotten into a large fight. One of the men had been thrown into a table, sending it crashing to the floor.  
  
"My god!!"  
"_SVEN'YA SOVIETSKECH_!!!" The man on the table screamed. "_Nyennavlist na Atrava!!_  
"_Petooch_." The opponent smiled as he wiped the blood off of his face. "_Tay platet_."  
  
Usagi watched in horror as two waiters jumped in and separated the bloody combatants. She turned to see if Locke had seen it, but was stopped when he saw him whispering to the waitress.  
  
"_Da…._" he whispered. "_Panimatyoo. Blagagavynost _. "  
  
The waitress quickly walked past to help break up the fight. Usagi turned to watch her go, then turned back to him.  
  
"The fight," Locke replied, as he could tell that that was what she wondering about. "That fight was about _chiem palyemika paletika_. The controversy of politics."  
"Controversy?"  
"About a certain former Soviet." Locke looked at the two contenders as they were cuffed by the waiters. "A man who hails from the Crimea. The waitress tells me that he was the treasurer of the Communist Party and the Politiboro under Brezhnev. His supporters think he is a shoe-in for the presidency if he chooses to run, the savior of a Russia contaminated by about a decade of capitalism; others are saying that he is the devil, a leader of the Mafia in this country; and all around dangerous. That was the subject of the fight."  
"And what," Usagi asked, "was his name?"  
"The waitress tells me his name is Papu Atrava." Locke replied. Seeing the confused look on her face, he corrected himself. "I mean, _Atrava Papu_. I am still not used to last name first…I never had to deal with a last name before I came here."  
  
The pro-Atrava fighter was escorted out of the exit that was nearest Usagi's. Usagi turned to face the man, and saw that he was already staring at her. He gave a little smirk as he was escorted away.  
_Huh?!?_ A tinge of fear crept up Usagi's spine. _Wait a minute…no….it can't be…._  
  
"Locke."  
"Huh?"  
"That man."  
"What about him?"  
"The Vladivistok station. That group of men at the bench. He was one of them. And he gave me this look just now."  
"Sweet God." Realization dawned on Locke. "We've got to get to our cabin."  
  
-------------------  
  
The snow in Vladivistok was becoming very intense. As a group of people waited to catch a plane, several others got off of a non-stop flight from Tokyo.  
  
"They're gone." Rei looked around. "I don't sense Usagi anywhere here."  
"But she is in Russia." Michiru looked at her mirror. "I can see it in my mirror."  
  
Behind the group was Mamoru, who simply looked at the ground. The trip over had been very depressing for him. He could not get Usagi off of his mind, and he was frightened as to what could be of her.   
Seeing that he was overly upset, Minako took his shoulder and patted it.  
  
"Don't fret, Mamoru!" she smiled. "We'll find her and strangle the guy who kidnapped her! I mean, it can't be that hard to find him…after all, bla bla bla…"  
  
Mamoru looked up despairingly, then gasped.   
  
"And besides, he's got weird hair and-"  
"Minako!"  
  
Minako looked over and gasped as well. In the crowd was another strange creature that was staring at them, the same type of animal that had appeared in OSA-P. The difference was that this one had its arms crossed, and it wore a hat.   
  
"Another weird creature!!" Minako whispered. "Hmm….."  
Suddenly, the creature began to walk away.  
  
"Hey!!" Minako began to run towards it. "Come back!"  
"Minako!!" Mamoru shouted. "Wait!!"  
  
Without another word, Minako left Mamoru and started to run towards it. The creature replied by running into another direction.  
  
"Minako!!!" She could hear Haruka calling her.  
"Don't follow it!! It's a trap!!!!" Ami shouted.  
  
Minako shoved her way through a group of Americans and an old man as she chased the creature. Finally, she spotted him going into the women's bathroom.  
  
"Oh no!!" she shouted. "You're not getting away from me!!"  
  
She dove into the bathroom, ramming her head into the towel dispenser as she did. Shaking her head she saw a bright flash of light. The creature was opening a portal, and the power it was using caused the lights in the bathroom to go out.  
  
"STOP!!!!!!!!!!!" Minako screamed.  
  
The creature stopped, and turned to look at her.  
  
"We let one of you get away in Japan, and we're not letting it happen this time!!!" Minako began to walk towards it. "You're going to tell us what you're doing here, and you're going to tell us now!!"  
  
The creature didn't move as she advanced closer. It simply looked at her as she got close enough to touch it.  
  
"Um….." Minako began to sweat. "Are you going to talk?"  
  
The creature stared at her for another moment, then opened its mouth.  
  
"Katharos."  
"Huh? Um…." Minako laughed. "That's not my name!!"  
"No, I know that." The creature haltingly replied. "It's Minako."  
"HUH?!? Then what's Katharos?!"  
"Figure it out for yourself. You and your friends are intelligent." The creature turned back around. "We've seen you from where we are - you can be strong when you need to."  
"Well….what's yours?!?  
  
No reply as the creature began to enter the portal. With a scream, Minako clenched her fists and screamed. It resonated throughout the bathroom.  
  
"YOU ANNOYING……ANNOYING….._THIIIIIIING_!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
"Hawking."  
"WHAT??" Minako took a deep breath in order to restrain herself from ripping the creature apart. "WHAT…….._IS_…………THAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?   
"My name."  
  
Suddenly, the creature dodged into the portal, and it closed, leaving a growling Minako on the floor, grabbing her hair.  
  
"I……HATE………..PEOPLE……...WHO……..PLAY………WITH………MY……………MIND!!!!!!!!!!!!" She roared.  
  
-------------------  
  
Usagi grabbed onto Locke's hand as they quickly paced themselves towards their cabin.  
  
"We're going to get our packs," Locke quickly took out the cabin key, "then we're getting out of here."  
  
From the corner of her eye, Usagi could see the group of men following them. Their distance was about four cabins away.  
  
"Dammit!" Usagi gasped. "They're following us!!"  
"It's midnight, and this is the empty side of the cabin car." Locke quickly unlocked the door. "Get in, quick."  
  
As quick as she could, Usagi stumbled into the cabin, falling on her knees. As Locke locked the door, she quickly took up her clothing and stuffed them all into her bag. She did the same with Locke's clothing (which he only had another change of) and also put her passport in the front pocket of Locke's pack.   
  
BAM!!!  
  
"Locke!!"  
"It's the only way." Locke was smashing his hand against the window of the cabin. "They know we're here. There's no time!"  
  
Indeed, Usagi could now hear knocking on the door, and shouting in Russian. She quickly put her pack on her back.  
  
"What are they saying?!"  
"They're asking if anyone is in here." Locke suddenly held out his hand. "Staff!"  
  
The long staff appeared in his hand, and Locke flipped it over to unsheath the knife. With a mighty heave he struck at the window, causing it to crack.  
  
"_Lowhck!!_" Usagi's heart froze when she heard the Russians calling out his name. "_Lowhck!! Astanovka!!_"  
"Nnngh!!!!!" Locke threw all of his weight into breaking the window. "Damn you!!"  
  
Usagi heard another sound from behind the door. This one was a popping sound. As the popping sound commenced, the lock on the door suddenly began to pop out.  
_A silencer_. Usagi heard the window shatter, but she didn't move. _They're going to get us._  
  
"Usagi!!! Hold your breath!!!"  
  
Usagi felt her hand being yanked by Locke, and without warning she was flying in the air, her back to the ground. She first saw the ceiling, then the expansive Russian sky, with the full moon in the middle. She took a deep breath as she saw little black dots shoot over her - bullets. Then, suddenly, she felt herself melting through something, and the next thing she saw was white.  
  
--------------------  
  
The men took shots at the figures, but it was too late. They had completely disappeared under the snow.  
  
"_Ne chooya syebyo pezda s zoobame!!_" The leader motioned to his men. "He won't like this."  
  
With that, the men quickly excused themselves from the room. They were going to be in enough trouble for losing their target and causing a fight. They didn't need anymore trouble from any eyebrow raiser that might be hanging around.


	8. Help

****

POMOSHCH  
_(Help)_

  
  
_What do you say about snow? Not much, except that it's cold and wet and white. It appears for a few months, then leaves. In most places on this Earth, that's the philosophy. Not so for those who live in the Far North.  
_

Such is the landscape of the Crimea and Siberia. The Crimean landscape that I find myself in is seemingly endless. It is undeniably Russian. And most of the souls who encounter it do not always live to tell the tale of their journeys through it.  


It is to be different tonight. Out on a field next to a now desolate train track, I can see a small glimpse of hope. First it is a hand. Then a mouth appears. Then, the whole head of Locke pops out of the snow as he throws his body up, gasping for air. He is not in his human form; he wouldn't have been able to survive if he had been. I watch as he gasps for air, grabbing for something in the snow which he is still stuck in.  
There's really no turning back. We've helped them thus far. It'd be a shame to see them fail now. I think I'll just walk over and see what I can do.  
  
-----------------  
  
"Urrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!!!!!!"  
  
Locke screamed as he burst through the snow. It was the coldest he had ever felt in his life. He took several gasps as he looked over towards his side.  
  
"…………Sagi?!?"  
  
She wasn't there. Locke's already numb body became more so as he looked to see Usagi's hand thrashing up desperately. It clawed at the unforgiving snow to no avail.  
_NO!!!_ Locke thrust his hand down, but found that doing so moved his body and upset the snow that was already ready to collapse on him. _She can't breathe down there. But I can't get to her or I'll die as well…_  
  
"Usagi!!!"  
  
Locke felt his delicate hold on the surface tumble over him. As quickly as he had broken through the snow, the snow overtook him once more, throwing him into the depths of an icy grave.  
  
------------------  
  
"I don't understand…"  
  
The sailors looked at Minako as she finished her story.  
  
"But it's what he said," Mianko replied. "'Katharos' and 'Hawking', which is what the creature claimed his name was. I am soooo confused now….."  
"Katharos…." Michiru looked at Haruka. "Could the creature have meant some sort of city?"  
"Whatever it is, it must be where that monster is taking Usagi, if it is a city of some sorts."  
"Let me check the database."  
  
Ami quickly took out her mini-computer and typed in several symbols and words into it. The soldiers watched her as she did so, and Minako picked her nose as well.  
  
"Mina-P!" Rei nudged the girl.   
"What?!"  
"That is unladylike!"  
"So is farting."  
"Don't start _that_ again," Rei glared at her.  
"Ah!" Ami's eyes grew wide.  
"Ami?!"  
"I found a Katharos." The computer beeped. "Katharos, a former Red Army town, west of St. Petersburg."  
"Right!" Haruka motioned to the others. "Let's go!"  
  
The group ran towards a ticket counter, not knowing that the creature watched them once more, its eyes trailing them until they were out of sight.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
To Locke, it had been the hand of Death who had come to claim him and Usagi. He could feel it as it tightly grabbed his wrist, taking him above the surface, or below the surface, to the next plane of existance.  
_Damn your eyes!_ Locke could hear himself screaming to himself. _This is your fault, you bloody fool! You were doomed the moment you saw those blue eyes, but now you have doomed her as well! Now the reason is lost, the obsession you've developed for that poor child should be cursed completely for its fruitlessness! For the moment you break……Death will have you……………..and………………………….her…………………………………………………._  
  
"HUAAAAAAAAH!!!!"  
  
The breath of air was completely unexpected to Locke, who had expected to never breathe again. But as soon as he could see again, what his eyes saw was something he had never expected to see in this cold grave, and at first he really thought he was dead because of it.   
  
"(_…………………….Moonwatcher!?!?!_)"  
  
The third guardian, wearing a long black coat, gave a grunt as he pulled the snow-caked Locke harder, moving back as he did. Locke used the upward movement to his advantage by throwing whatever parts of his body he could still feel onto the more stable snowbanks next to the train tracks. Despite this effort, Locke was still weighed down by something; despite that he was numb, he could still feel some sort of weight hanging off of his fingers.  
  
"(_Let….go!!!!_)" Moonwatcher shouted.  
  
Locke looked to see that his numb left hand was clinging onto another, human hand - Usagi's. Her head was now visible over the snow, but she looked frighteningly still.  
  
"(_I….can't!!_)" Locke clenched his teeth.  
  
With another quick movement, the free echidna let go of Locke, who was safe on the surface. Locke gave a gasp as he felt a sensation on his hand. Then, something that felt like skin ripping off of his palm.  
  
"UrrraaaaAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!"  
  
Locke's cry of pain was quickly stifled as he bit his tongue. He could hear Moonwatcher grunting again as he slowly pulled Usagi out of the hole and onto safer ground. Her limp body simply plopped to the ground as Moowatcher let her go.  
  
"(_She was frozen to your hand._)" From his tone, it was as though the third guardian didn't even feel the cold - something Locke didn't doubt in the least. "(_I couldn't get you both to safety without separating you two._)"  
"(_Is…._)" Locke had to find his voice again, as it had been lost from the cold and the shock; "(_Will she….be….all right?_)"  
"(_Not sure yet._)"  
  
Moowatcher bent back down and put his hand onto her neck, then onto her wrist. After a moment, he quickly took off his coat and moved Usagi around so that she was wearing it. He wore nothing under it, save for a pair of boots, which he also took off, giving them to Locke as he did. Locke let out a sigh of relief.  
  
"(_I would suggest carrying her until she wakes up._)" Moonwatcher stood up again. "(_You have a long walk to where you're going._)"  
"(_I suppose I do._)" Locke looked over to his right, where the track loomed into the distance. "(_But at least we escaped those thugs from whomever in the Mafia is responsible for this threat._)"  
"(_I wouldn't be so optimistic._)" Moonwatcher snapped his fingers, and a bright light appeared - a portal. "(_They'll be waiting for you in Katharos, make no mistake._)"  
"(_Wait._)" Locke's eyes grew wide. "(_You're….returning?_)"  
"(_I must._)" Moonwatcher turned around. "(_But make no mistake, this will not be the last you will see of us._)"  
  
With that, Moonwatcher jumped into the portal and was gone.  
  
--------------------------------  
  
"_GAVYESHKAN!!_"  
  
It was painfully apparent to both Vanguard and the Green Monster that Atrava was highly displeased with the result of the apprehension attempt.  
  
"_Zhevoi Lowhck vitem?!?!_" Atrava's angry voice resonated from the room nearby. "_SOLONYOOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_"  
"(_I suppose we should be lucky that it was not _my_ men, eh?_)" Vanguard looked at the Green Monster. "(_Eh?_)"  
"(_I suppose._)" The Green Monster didn't look at him.   
"(_Do not be so sad._)" Vanguard chuckled. "(_He's saving himself for you. But, when you kill him, leave a bit for me, huh? I have a few things to settle with that dick._)"  
  
Finally, the phone slammed down, and Atrava came back, his face snarling.  
  
"Locke's alive. Headed to St. Katharos." He glared at Vanguard. "With one of _them_."  
"Interesting." Vanguard looked at his employer. "Would you like me to dispose of them?"  
  
The Green Monster's head jerked up at that. Atrava looked to see the fury of betrayal in his eyes at those words.  
  
"No." With a smile, Atrava put a hand up. "Do not kill them. I want them alive. Take them to the Gargelis compound when they are found."  
"You mean…." The light died in Vanguard's eyes. "You want Locke _unharmed_??"   
"A few hits might not hurt on him….as long as they're not in any way life-threatening." Atrava questioningly nodded to the Green Monster, who nodded in agreement after a moment. "But I especially want the girl unharmed. I have my reason for _that_."  
  
After a moment of surprise, Vanguard gave a nod of comprehension.  
  
"Fine," he croaked. "But you'll be paying me more for this request, right?"  
"Of course." Atrava gave him a smile. "I wouldn't have it any other way if I wanted to keep you."  
"Fine." Vanguard turned to the Green Monster. "(_Come._)"  
  
Atrava waited until the two had exited out of the room and down the hall before he began to laugh hysterically.  
  
"Pay _him_?!?!?" He roared. "The day I die is the date he gets paid!!"  
  
----------------------------  
  
_The blood on the battlefield. The blood on the dark figures. Then, the blood on her.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Usagi screamed as the blood covered her. The scream echoed into the distant city landscape. It was almost like a horrible religious ritual as she watched in horror - the bodies falling to the ground, riddled with bullets. The sky darkened as the last of the creatures, the last of those who were of Locke's kind, fell, dead.  
  
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"  
  
The click of a barrel silenced her scream as it turned into a gasp. She turned to see two men - one middle-aged with a flick of white at his temples, the other, whom looked familiar, with completely black hair down to his knees - over her, their guns pointed to her head. Her hands flew to her broach, but it was not there.  
  
"(Stupid heffer)" The humorous tone of the insult, which Usagi could understand for some reason, made her quake. "(She cannot stop us. Not with _him_. We will win the day this time.)"  
  
Usagi's body shuddered as she felt the bullet hit its mark…._  
  
----------------------  
  
"…………………………Locke………………………."  
  
Usagi could still feel the icy cold steel of the bullet in her forehead as she slowly opened her eyes. The moon shined directly above her as her eyes began to clear from her strained sleep. The air nipped at her, but she simply attempted to shrug it off, only to find arms limiting her.  
  
"Where…?"  
"Usagi..?"  
  
Right under the moon was the worried face of Locke, in human form. Seeing it, Usagi gave a sigh of relief. She was only being carried along the railroad tracks…by Locke.   
_When I wake up, I am always with someone whom I can trust._ Feeling invigorated by the comfort that her pain had only been a dream, Usagi wriggled out of Locke's arms. She scanned her body, noticing the black coat covering her. _I was right. He is not an enemy._  
  
"Are you all right?" Locke's face was worried. "You…you shuddered…and then…."  
  
Usagi could see Locke's confused face, and her dream came back to her. She looked down at the ground, her thoughts mixed.  
_That dream…….._  
  
"I'm fine, Locke." Usagi managed to smile. "I guess I was unconscious for a while from….well, from jumping."  
"I see…."  
  
Locke's face did not change as they walked on.  
  
-------------------------  
  
The sun shined onto the tracks as the two walked on. Locke adjusted his hat as he walked on. Usagi looked down at the tracks as she walked.  
  
"Locke…."   
"Hmm?"  
"Where do you come from? What is it like there?"  
"Where I….." Locke's head went down. "It….I……No."  
"Locke…."  
  
Usagi stopped. Sensing this, Locke turned around to face her.  
  
"I know how you wish to keep your true past a secret," Usagi looked back up at him. "But….I have this feeling that your past is the key. The key to saving everyone. Please do not deny it if what I'm saying is the truth. Because…..I think I know what has happened to you. You do not have to tell it all to me."  
  
_"(Foolish heffer…)"_   
  
"Usagi…?"  
"I have seen it, Locke." Usagi closed her eyes. "The death that you have seen. I don't know how. But…I saw it in my sleep. And I see it in your eyes. The sadness that the Phi….Chaos Emeralds have brought to you. _Please._" Usagi could feel the desperation in her voice, but she didn't care. "If I am lying, please tell me!"  
  
The alien didn't speak for several moments. He simply clutched his staff as he looked down. Usagi could see that she had affected him with her words, and she almost regretted it until he spoke.  
  
"Yes," he finally said. "It has become a sad place for me."  
"Did….people die?"  
"Yes." The reply was shaky.  
"Did….."  
"Everyone died." The angry words surprised Usagi. "Everyone. Which is what could happen to this planet if we don't keep moving."  
  
Usagi's head went down as she began to walk again, and neither spoke for two hours, as the flat scenery began to become lumpier until the lumps became mountainous. She could see that her words had touched a soft spot on Locke. _But it was my fault for speaking…_  
  
"I'm sorry."  
"Huh?" The words were completely unexpected.  
"I was a bit curt," Locke stopped, "with my words."  
"No." Usagi shook her head. "I overstepped. I should have figured…..but even then…..I was the one who insulted you."  
  
The two looked away from each other, uncertain of what to say next. Finally, Locke gave a laugh.  
  
"That wasn't your fault, Usagi."  
"What wasn't?"  
"What happened to me." A sadness crept into his voice. "It was really _my_ fault. In several ways."  
"It….." Usagi looked back at him. "How was it _your_ fault?"  
"It," Locke turned back around, walking once more. "It is a long story."  
  
Usagi walked once more as well, positioning herself so that she was next to him.  
  
"I don't mind."  
"Well…" Locke hesitated. "It is sad, as I have said."  
"If it will help me to understand…"  
"Very well." Locke paused. "I…was the Guardian where I come from. The Guardian of a place called Echidnapolis."  
  
For some odd reason, Usagi could envision a large city with his words, filled with creatures similar to himself. She wasn't sure whether it was her crystal or Locke's Emerald that was allowing her to suddenly see these visions, but it did not matter to her at that moment.  
  
"Echidnapolis was a unique place on my planet," Locke continued, "because it was suspended in the air. It simply floated in the sky, on the Floating Island, and it had been like that for quite awhile. Of course, there are many reasons for it to be floating, but….." he paused. "I do not think that it would be completely appropriate to talk about them in detail."  
"Ok." Usagi shrugged.  
"But….one of my duties as a Guardian was to train future Guardians, which would be any children I had." Locke paused. "I did have one child - a son. But….."  
  
Another long pause. Usagi wasn't quite sure whether it was for dramatic effect, or whether it was painful to talk about it. But she simply kept her mouth shut.  
  
"I had a dream one night." Locke slowly resumed. "A dream where my Island was laid to waste…and my son was fighting a battle he could not win. I was told upon interpretation that it meant the arrival of the Guardian Savior, the echidna whom would unite our people."  
"Echidna??" Usagi's eyes went wide. "You're…an echidna?"  
"You thought I was something else?"  
"Well…." _I didn't think such a beautiful creature could be something _that_ plain!_ "I thought echidnas were indigenous to our world, like humans…." Usagi paused, then roll her eyes. "Uh huh. _I'm_ the last person to say we're alone in the universe. But I guess it depends on where you are."  
  
The thought of Locke licking up ants with his tongue almost caused her to fall down laughing. However, she kept herself in check, albeit forcefully, as Locke continued his story.  
  
"I decided that, in order to save my son from the future I had dreamed, I would alter his genetic material using a Chaos Emerald." Locke gave a sigh. "Not that genetic alterations with the Emeralds are unfamiliar to us at all, of course. Your people have only begun the baby steps of basic genetic study."  
"Really?"  
"Yes. But never had anyone altered the genes of a Guardian with the Chaos Emerald in utero. Which is what _I_ did with my son." Locke's eyes suddenly became distant. "Perhaps that was my mistake…"  
  
_"Knuckles?!?" Locke had shouted. "Have….have you joined _him_?!?"  
"I did it to save you, father!" Knuckles shouted in reply, an old, shriveled echidna next to him. "Do you not appreciate what your son has done?!"_  
  
"I did not know the amount of power which would resonate through his body as a result of the experiments…nor was I sure of whether he could even control it." The words were just slightly above a whisper. "I knew too little, and I paid for my desire to save the world with the lives of everyone around me - including my son……"  
  
Usagi hung her head down with respect for Locke's lost child. They walked on, neither saying anything for several minutes.  
  
"It was my fault entirely." Locke finally said. "I trusted too much in technology. I did not remember the lessons that my ancestors were forced to learn when they messed with the nature of things. What kind of a man am I, allowing myself to do such things to my son?"  
"But," Usagi protested, "You did it because you thought it could save him, didn't you? From that dream."  
"Yes, but…." Locke shook his head. "It is all the same, nonetheless. And now I must pay for it for the rest of my life. And…that is why I am here. To stop the senselessness that the Emeralds' powers bring."  
  
Usagi looked at Locke, her eyes determined. _I do not know why…but I feel as if I knew this all along - that Locke was here to stop history from repeating itself. To stop civilization from walking in the same, tired, cycled steps towards entropy…_  
  
"No matter what happens," she said firmly. "I'll be by your side on this. Until the very end."  
  
------------------------------  
  
The night settled in on the two, and they set up camp behind an embankment near the railroad tracks. Usagi snuggled as best as she could under the sleeping bag, looking over towards Locke as he set up his bed.  
  
"Locke."  
"Hmm?"  
"Thank you….for saving me."  
"Why, I……" Locke paused. "You're welcome."  
  
He watched as she gave a smile, then rolled over, falling asleep in the bag as she did. He quietly crawled into his own sleeping bag and looked up at the sky. Stars dotted the large blue canvas of the atmosphere.  
_The night sky is so beautiful…._ He thought as his mind began to succumb to his desire of slumber. _The blue irises…..the light radiating off of them…..like _her_ eyes…….._  
  
-----------------------------  
  
The night wore on, and Usagi and Locke both literally slept the silent, cold, stiff sleep of the dead. Both were so deep in slumber that it would have been impossible to wake them. To that end, neither could hear the creak of the small, wooden handcart as it rumbled towards them.  
  
"(_This is……_)"  
"(_Yes._)"  
  
Two echidnas similar to Locke in his alien form jumped off of the handcart and hopped towards the two, grunting as they picked each of them up in their sleeping bags. One by one, the two humans were loaded onto the sides of the handcart.  
  
"(_This is hard work._)"  
"(_I will second that._)"   
  
One of the echidnas, whom was brown with beads and other decorations in his hair, took the left handle, while the other, a red echidna, took the right. They began to pump simultaneously, with the cart starting slow, then picking up speed until it traveled faster any other travel device seen on Earth.  
  
"(_There is one thing I must ask, Uncle._)" The stars turned into white lines on a blue backdrop. "(_This is the first time you ever helped us. You never did before._)"  
"(_That is true, Steppenwolf._)" A small snore came from Usagi. "(_But sometimes it takes something that is beyond our control for us to see reason._)"  
"(_And……this is one of those things?_)"  
"(_…..You can say that._)"  
  
The handcart wore on, going faster at every minute and every interval, until it was finally nothing more than a blur, a figment of imagination to those who might have seen it, followed by a powerful blast of supernatural wind.  
  
----------------------------  
  
"……………..nnnnngh……………."  
  
Locke's eyes slowly began to focus onto the room. Where there had been a bright blue night sky, there was now a wooden ceiling blocking his view.  
_Where……where am I….._  
  
"(_You finally awaken._)"  
  
The familiar voice sent sudden chills down Locke's back as he slowly turned to see the origin of the voice. The origin was an echidna he knew too well.  
  
"(_You!_)"  
"(_And….a good morning to you too, Locke._)" The brown echidna adjusted his conductor's cap with a slight frown on his face. "(_I see that you slept well. But even so, is this how you talk to people who help you??_)"  
"(_Well…I would like to venture why _you're_ here helping us, Dimitri._)" Locke tried to hide his enmity as best as he could, though he said it through slightly clenched teeth.  
"(_Tsk._)" The brown echidna, once one of Mobius' more terrifying villains, simply shook his head. "(_Really, I'm not going to kill you. I haven't the inclination anymore. That left with my life._)"  
"(_……I……see…….._)" It still wasn't completely comforting to Locke.  
"(_And you know that you can't kill me either…._)"  
  
Locke turned around to see another familiar face, standing next to Usagi as they both looked out the window.  
  
"I _really_ wish I knew your language, Steppenwolf," Usagi gave a sigh. "Then I'd be able to figure out what you guys are saying."  
"Don't feel left out." Steppenwolf replied in almost perfect Japanese. "There's about six billion others around this place that have no clue what we're saying either."  
"I guess you're right." Usagi stared out of the window. "Wow. There's so many people here!"  
"Of course there are." Steppenwolf gave a shrug. "It's a political rally."  
"A political…"  
  
Locke slowly stood up and walked to the window, looking over Usagi's shoulder as he did. His mouth dropped when he saw the scenery before him.  
  
"We're in…..St. Katharos……."  
  
The small city of St. Katharos lay before them, and it was then that Locke realized that they were inside a woodshed overlooking the city; he could hear the train blowing as it stopped into the station. But both Usagi and Steppenwolf were right; there were hundreds of people, signs were being held up….and the rally completely filled the center square of the city.  
  
"You're going to have a time getting to Googolov's." Dimitri stood up. As he did, Steppenwolf back up to stand next to him. "I would suggest trying to stay out of the fray as best as possible. It's a rally about one of the candidates for the Russian presidency, Papu Atrava."  
"Papu Atrava…" Usagi looked down in confusion. _That name again. Every time I hear it….I feel…_ "The Communist guy?"  
"Yes." Dimitri snapped his finger, and a bright portal appeared. "In a pro-democratic town, no less. But if you do have trouble, you'll have some assistance. So that you can get out alive."  
"Assistance?" Locke's thoughts returned to Dimitri. "Wait! What kind of-"  
  
The light flashed, and the portal closed before Locke could finish his question, let alone turn to face his ancestors.  
  
--------------------------  
  
  
  
"ATRAVA!!!"  
  
Usagi felt her security level sink further and further as they began to descend deeper and deeper into the crowd.  
  
"Damn," Locke muttered. "No way out."  
"Even the side roads are blocked…." Usagi gripped Locke's arm. "I don't think we should be separated. This whole thing about this Atrava guy is beginning to scare me!"  
  
If Usagi had been speaking Russian instead of Japanese, or even if Japanese-savvy Russians in the crowd had been paying attention, she would most likely have drawn hateful stares, taunts or even some items thrown at her by the enraged crowd. But most were too busy chanting, stomping their feet and waving their signs as they screamed at the top of their voices.  
  
"ATRAVA…..BALLOTEROVKA!!" The crowd chanted. "ATRAVA…… BALLOTEROVKA!!!!"  
"What are they saying?!" Usagi finally shouted after fifteen minutes of screaming. "'Vote Atrava'?!"  
  
Before Locke could confirm her question, a loudspeaker came on, and a female voice resonated in the streets.  
  
"_Kopatvem chiem mogela da moodoshlyop Putin!!!_" She screamed. "_Chiem Pazyoba da Eresefesar!_"  
  
The crowd cheered with a ferocity she had never heard before. Usagi tiptoed as best as she could, trying to avoid the other protesters as she peaked up to see a young girl holding up a photo.  
  
"Locke!! What are they saying?!"  
"Down with the liar!" Locke shouted back. "They are talking of the current President!"  
"_VYECHNAY ATRAVA!!!_"  
  
The crowd roared with approval as the girl burned the picture, throwing it into the crowd, who promptly stomped it out as it fell. Sirens could be heard as the smoke rose into the sky, but no one seemed to be paying attnetion.  
  
"Locke!"  
"The police..."  
  
No matter where they turned, however, they were packed in so tightly that they could not move without hitting someone. Finally, someone violently shoved Usagi into Locke.  
  
"_Kopova!!_" Usagi heard one man scream.  
"_CHIEM MOGELA DA ESAESSHA!!_"  
  
Usagi tiptoed as best as she could to see that the girl, who couldn't have been older than her, had thrown an American flag into a fire barrel. A TV camera could be seen peeking out of the crowd.  
  
"Imperialist pigs of America!" the young girl suddenly screamed in English. "Western countries of plenty! With your stupid capitalist ideals and weak compromises, you have turned Russia soft. But this will not be forgiven! Atrava will create the true Soviet country which will swallow up the capitalist waste of this world!!! _VYECHNAY ATRAVA!!!_"  
"_VYECHNAY SOVIETS!!!_"  
  
The girl suddenly kicked the barrel right onto the TV camera, which set both the camera and the cameraman ablaze.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"  
  
Usagi gasped as the crowd simply laughed at the poor man's predicament. The man screamd as the flames consumed his body. Usagi covered her eyes and moaned at the sight.  
  
"He must be American..."  
"DOWN WITH THE AMERICANS!!!"  
"_ASTALVYAT!!!_"  
  
Several hundred armed police suddenly appeared on stage, handcuffing the girl. Kicking and screaming, the girl was dragged offstage.  
  
"_Astalvyat!_" A policeman shouted.   
"_VYECHNAY ATRAVA!!!_" The angry crowd only screamed louder.  
"_Vozvrashchyeneyeet dom_!!" The policeman continued. "_Vozvrashchyeneyeet dom VRYEMYA!!_!!"  
"_MOODOSHLYOP!!!_"  
  
Stones were thrown onto the stage, hitting the policeman. But he didn't budge.  
  
"ATRAVA!!!!!!"  
  
Suddenly, a gunshot was heard from the crowd, rising above the defiant shout. The policeman fell, blood coursing from his legs, onto the floor.  
  
"NOOO!!!"  
  
Usagi could feel her scream carry into the crowd, and for a brief moment, it was all she could hear. The world was silent to her, everything in sudden slow motion. She knew exactly what was going to happen next; the horrified look on Locke's face confirmed that he, too, understood the inevitable that was to come. Only retribution.  
  
"..._PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALEEEEEEEEEE!!!_"  
  
The policeman's scream came too quickly. It was followed by several gunshots, this time from the police, and Usagi could see several people in the front fall, some on top of the body of the cameraman, whose body still burned long after his heart gave out.  
  
"AAAAAAAAH!!!! AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
The angry crowd began to panic when the armored police also began to beat those in the front rows. Many began to surge and attack the police, while others began to run, crushing those wishing to go to the police.  
  
"LOCKE!!!"  
  
Usagi could feel people slamming into her ribs and stomach as they all converged upon her. Her grip on Locke's arm was ripped away, and she immediately lost the humanoid in the rioting crowd. Her screams were lost on the crowd as they screamed louder than she.   
  
"LOOOCKE!!!!!!!"  
"AAAAAAAAAH!!!!"  
  
She could see one middle-aged man next to her suddenly being thrown to the ground by a group of girls, who immediately ran over his back to rush the crowd. They ignored his screaming, and even after Usagi heard a loud crack from his back no one stopped to help him. In fact, more people began to trample over him.  
  
"_POMOSHCH_!!!!" Usagi's ear heard another girl under someone's feet, even though she could feel people slamming their feet into her mouth as they ran over her. "_POMOSHCH!!!_"  
  
Usagi began to run the other way as best as she could. All she saw were angry faces as she tried to get through, but the line of angry faces yielded none in particular that she could recognize. None were Locke. None seemed to care.  
  
"_POMOSHCH_!!!" Usagi found herself screaming. She imitated the poor girl as best as she could. "_Locke!!! Pomoshch!!!!!!!!!_"  
  
Her reply from the crowd was a violent shove in the side, then a grab on the shoulder. She knew she was going to go down even before the sensation hit her.  
  
"No…….."  
  
A pull on her arm, obviously to help her up, did not help either. She turned to see if it was Locke, but the person fell on her. Gasping for air under the weight, Usagi could feel a panic attack upon her. She could not move, nor she could breathe properly - her throat clamped in fear of death. She shut her eyes, and the feet began to roll over like a violent wave, a wave that she was powerless, in all of her power, to stop from drowning her.  
  
------------------------  
  
_The violent crowd is relentless as I throw myself into it. They protest the government, yet tremble and run when it comes upon them for their just punishment.   
  
Arrogant hypocrite humans! What do you know about _real_ fear? Real fear is facing death full face and knowing that you will die no matter what. Real fear is being in this crowd and being _innocent_. None of you that run away because you do not want to face your fate have that luxury of fear. You simply run over the innocent in order to fulfill your wish of getting out alive. I am here to save those you deem unfit, those who were more fit to live than you worthless gnats.  
  
And now I spot them. They are innocent in this riot. They strain to get up, but they are stuck by the guilty ones, who simply step over them. I can see others in the same condition, but these two I _must_ save. Without his powers to save him, Locke simply takes the full brunt of the stampede, his hand clinging desperately to the girl's arm, whose head is once again spilling blood.  
  
A young man jumps over them, missing the two completely. I take the chance. I muscle my way through the crowd, knowing full well they who run cannot see me. I lunge at Locke, and I grab the girl up in my arms. Locke looks to see me, and I can see the surprise in his eyes to see me. Then again, though it is not every day that you see a ghost, it is not the fact that I am just a ghost that shocks him. For I am a ghost…._and _I am his father.  
  
I see the next wave as Locke painfully stands up. I turn around, the road clear. There is nothing for us to do now. But _run_. To run as if it is the only thing standing between saving your life. And losing everything._  



	9. Googolov

**__**

Googolov

  
_I see her as her head silently rests on the pillow. It is like heaven in dormancy to me. Her golden hair spread around her and the couch like wings, her soft face in sweet sleep, her body sunken into the cushions. I see something in her that I have never seen in anyone before. I can't quite put a finger on it. Neither can my father. But my father isn't here because of her, even though he asks of her.   
He is dressing my wounds from the riot, which he dragged us out of. My cuts could have been worse, but judging by the sore condition I am in, as well as the feeling that my father has been bandaging me for quite some time, it could be much better. What's worse, the pain of my arm malady seems to have amplified because someone had stepped right where it hurts most. But I make no mention of this as my father questions me.  
  
"(She only knows of your name, Locke?)"  
"(No…that's not all that she knows of, Father.)" I shake my head as I stifle a wince. "(She has seen me.)"  
"(Well, of course she has seen you.)"  
"(No….)" I am not quite sure how to put it. "(I mean…she has _seen_ me.)"  
"(She has seen…)" It comprehends on my father. "(Oh. I see.)"  
  
I give sigh as I rub my nose. Her body rises slowly as she sleeps in her comatose state. Her face is marked by a gash - no doubt given to her by the rioters outside. If it hadn't been for my father, I am not sure that either of us would have survived.  
  
"(You must tell her how you came to be here, Locke.)" My father stood up and paused on the bandages, pacing to the front of my view. As a human, I suddenly realize just how short our race truly is. "(About everything.)"  
"(I don't know how to,)" I confess. "(I am not sure how I came myself. But that is why I came here. To this man's house.)"  
"(Well, what _do_ you remember?)"  
  
I pause. It is very hard for me to remember. Mainly because I don't wish to remember.  
  
"(I remember…)" I finally speak. "(Death.)"  
  
----------------------  
  
We had just been freed from the confines of the mysterious blackness from which we had been imprisoned. I think that we had not been able to move, or speak, or see in the zone. This is because I remember nothing of my imprisonment. It was as if I had been cyrogenically frozen, with only darkness to comfort me, and cold to touch me.  
When I had come to, we were all in Haven, and I felt what could have been Knuckles' power, communicating to me. I went to meet him out on the Island to see what happened. I remember that much. Then I remember seeing the entire Dark Legion in front of us. They had been sent to the zone as well, yet they had regrouped quickly. I had begun to wonder where Knuckles was. I had scanned the group - all of the city had been taken - and I saw Knuckles' friends, then Lara-Le, then…..  
I could not believe it myself. But I knew it was him. And he was fighting for the enemy. That is when the trouble started.  
I was so angered I can't really remember the days of war which ravaged our island. I remember sending the Chaotix out to get help….and I remember sending Lara-Le and Wyn with them, in order to help the point we were trying to make: we were desperate. They could be alive, though it would be useless to ponder on it now….But little else of the days I really recall.   
Yes, those days are blurry to me, but I remember the last day. That was the day I went to find my son on the battlefield, to tell him the fruitlessness of what he was doing. Then it happened.  
They came from a bright flash of light….I suppose you remember, father. We were all on the front lines as we fell. I saw shadows of Overlanders…but they were not Overlanders. They were beings far more terrifying than that. The leader of them held up a hand, and the Master Emerald was behind him.  
I remember seeing the shock in your eyes…and in Knuckles'. But they had the one thing that allowed the island to float.  
I can still feel my flesh tingling as the velocity of our descent caught me by surprise. It had caught you by surprise, and so did the bullet that took your life. I can remember blood….so much blood…..not just yours….but everyone's….including mine……the bullet is still lodged in my arm to this day…..but in that bloodbath I lost my son….somewhere in that.  
Then there was silence. The men who committed this heinous crime disappeared once more in a flash of light, and I was alone. Alive, but alone. Everyone was dead. The Master Emerald floated lazily away from the island as it had begun to sink. Despite the bitter mercy that these cruel humans had left the Emerald, not all of the gem's power could restore the lost souls who died. I lost hope. There was nothing. Not even evil was spared…..  
But the other light…..it came then. That time, I saw _it_.  
A creature that our world could not have created  
Its beautiful hair cascaded down to the ground. Its pale peach body was unclothed, save for a pair of wings which adorned its back. The most stunning attribute was its blue eyes, which danced with life that I had never seen in any mortal being I had met.  
  
"(_What....are you?_)"  
"Do not be frightened." The its voice was like silk, a choir from heaven, to me. "I have found you. You must help me."  
  
That was when I realized that it was one of _them_, one of the god-like beings which descended from another world when crisis approached. They called themselves human. I had heard of them, but I had never seen a human. Never mind a _female_ one as beautiful as this one. They had been what legends were created of.  
  
"I have finally found you." The human continued. It's voice.....I realized that it was a _her_ that was addressing me. "We must hurry. The coldness of space beckons."  
  
And……suddenly…..she came over to me…..and kissed me.   
Father, I can still feel the sensation of her lips on mine. It was a warmth I had never felt before. Or I had felt it before, but could not believe that this girl could possess it on her own. I can still feel it in my body. I could feel a cold wind pulsing against my back….I realized I was inside some sort of warp. A warp in space, a warp in time, it made no difference. I knew I was safe in her arms. For the first time, I forgot Lara-Le. It was only _her_, this girl who seemed to have magic emulating from every pore of her pearl skin.  
It was an eternity before her lips parted from mine, but it was an eternity that I didn't want to end.   
  
"It is up to you now," she said in the voice I had fallen in love with. "You will not be alone. I shall be with you, in more ways than you can imagine, in your heart, and by your side. But I beseech you to stop the carnage that you alone have witnessed as a result of the corruption of absolute power. Your world is not the first to have seen it, for I am a witness as well to hell upon the mortal masses. But it must end here."  
  
I was about to reply to her delicious words, father, but before I could, I looked at my surroundings. I was in a place that could not have been on Mobius. It was vast desert, like Sandopolis, but with civilization as well, only it was far into the distance. I looked up at the sky, and found the view of it to be clearer than in any place I had ever been to. That was when I realized that I was no longer on Mobius; that we had followed the men to _their_ world.  
  
"(_I know,_)" I finally managed to reply to her in Mobian. "(_But how am I going to stop them? Are there Chaos Emeralds here as well?_)"  
"They are not known as such; but yes." The girl turned around and began to walk. I followed. "But the people of Earth are not accustomed to their power. You must gather them and keep them from the dark creature from the past who wishes to use them in order to blot out the future!"  
  
Her words were so determined, I felt a religious devotion. It was then I noticed…..that I had changed. I could feel and see that my body and mind, and perhaps even my soul, was completely different from before. Her magic kiss had made me into one of the creatures which walked on this Earth. I had almost been positive that she possessed a Chaos Emerald herself, but _something_ was there within her that could not have been in the power of any Emerald.  
  
"I must leave, Locke." The girl began to glow again. Her wings spread like a rainbow spectrum. "But we shall meet again. Good luck in your quest for this world."  
  
I wished to thank her in her language, for in her kiss she has somehow given me the power to understand the human tongue. But she was gone before I could.  
  
-------------------------  
  
"(And I have met her again.)"  
  
I look at Usagi again. The feeling I had when I had been given my mission seems to stir up within me upon every glance on her. If it was not Usagi, or at least the spirit of Usagi, that did not visit me that fateful day, she looks so like her that she could fool me. But I am positive.  
  
"(Yes, that is good…)" My father looks uneasily towards the door. "(But you _do_ realize that he is here?)"  
"(He….)"  
  
My father suddenly disappears in a flash of light as the door opens. I stand up and I see him, the man from whom I must have some of my answers from. Andrei Googolov._  
  
------------------------  
  
"……Yes."  
  
Vanguard looked at Atrava, his eyes dancing with happiness. The two were inside a white walled laboratory. A large tank lay in the corner of the room, connected to various tubes, a black mass floating inside a sea of red. But neither man paid attention to it; neither man was concerned with it at the moment, though it had been their concern before the call from one of their informants.  
  
"It has been confirmed. Locke is at Googolov's."  
"That old rat." Atrava muttered. "No wonder he would go to him."  
"Not only that," Vanguard's eyes became brighter at the following, "We think we have found the location of the last Emerald."  
  
Atrava's eyes widened as he looked at Vanguard.  
  
"This is true?"  
"Yes." Vanguard smiled crookedly. "All I need is the word, and I will wipe out what is left of our pithily resistance."  
  
The room became silent as Atrava silently pondered Vanguard's words. Finally, Atrava looked up at Vanguard.  
  
"Get them. Alive. Remember. Bring _her_ unharmed."  
"No problem, sir." Vanguard's face became wicked at the words. "You will get what you paid for."  
  
Marching triumphantly out, Vanguard hardly paid attention to the Green Monster, who simply glared at him as he passed by.  
  
"(_Traitor!_)"  
"(_Heh._)" Vanguard scoffed as he walked by.  
"(_How dare-"_)"  
"(_Forget him._)"  
  
The Green Monster turned to face Atrava, who also now had a mischievous expression on his face.  
  
"(_Your master _will_ let you kill Locke._)" Atrava looked up at the monster. "(_Or else._)"  
"(_Or else?_)"  
"(_You are becoming tired of his foolishness, I can see. I say that if he does not let you kill Locke…._you_ can kill _him._ How does that sound?_)"  
"(_Kill my…master?_)" The Green Monster's face became clouded. "(_Would….would I be able to?_)"  
"(_My boy._)" Atrava walked up to him and patted him on the back. "(_Your master works for me now, and whatever I want him to do, he must do. If he doesn't…..then he deserves to die. Wouldn't you agree, dear boy?_)"  
"(_Yeah……I guess if that's how it works…_)"  
"(_And that _is_ how it works, my boy._)" Atrava smiled again. "(_You master fails to see that. That will prove to be very disadvantageous to him in the end, by boy. In the end._)"  
  
With another pat, the two walked out of the room, leaving the mass and the tube to itself.  
  
----------------------------  
  
The scientist was at least sixty years old, a portly, short, bald man whom wore a business suit and a hat. He also carried a briefcase on his person. The last item, however, fell to the ground upon entering his abode, specifically when he saw what was in his living room.  
  
"Who are you?!?"  
  
The man stood up. He was relatively taller, with red hair tucked under his hat and shirt. He also donned several bandages. But the fact that such a man was even in his home made the old scientist want to shudder in fear for what the stranger wanted. However, he simply smiled and crossed his arms.  
  
"What are you doing here?!?"  
"Forgive me." The man, while obviously not of the scientist's country, spoke Russian like a native. "You are Andrei Googolov? The renowned, or perhaps renowned but not well known, scientist who discovered multiple properties of atomic structure and fusion?"  
"Y-yes, that is me." Googolov forced an indignant smile. "As I asked, who are you?"  
"I have come to inquire about an earlier project of yours." The man did not smile back. "One that is known within the ring of the Russian Mafia."  
  
The old man's face fell. _How could it be..._  
  
"What....project?" he stammered.  
"A project concerning a spot in Egypt."  
"I know nothing of what you are talking about. How did you get into my house?!? I'll have the police on you!"  
  
The man was up the instant Andrei had uttered the words. But instead of leaving, as he had hoped, he simply took out a brown staff and swung it towards the phone, which was situated on the wall. The phone shattered with the swing.  
  
"You will, will you."  
"You.....what do you want with me?!"  
"You know what I want. I want to know more about a spot in Egypt that might have been of interest to you in one point of your life." The man's voice became more menacing. "You can either give me the information on your free will, of I can _make_ you."  
  
It was at this point that Usagi began to wake up. She looked up to see Locke pointing his staff at Googolov.  
  
"You have no way of escaping, old man." Locke's eyebrows furrowed. "You do not want me to be angry, do you?"  
"Locke?!?"  
  
He turned to see Usagi, whose face showed all of her confusion.  
  
"What....what are you doing?!"  
"What?! Who are _you_?!" The old man demanded.  
"My companion." Locke replied. "One who is going to find out, along with myself, a little bit about a warp that you researched on."  
"I don't know what you mean-"  
"You know well what I mean." Locke's voice went even lower. "You were working on a project concerning a spot of warped space in the Egyptian Sahara. You were the main scientist on it. And I want details on what you know about it."  
"You are ins-"  
"God damn it." Locke's anger was masked through gritting his teeth. "I was in Egypt. I went through the warp! I didn't know it was that until I overheard Mafia sympathizers talking about it. Your name came up in the same sentence as being the man responsible for the information they had for it! These were the same men who massacred thousands within the warp! Are you going to deny me my demands when you are the one who made their killing spree possible?!"  
  
Googolov's eyes grew wide in shock.  
  
"_Massacre_?!"  
"I see I've gotten your attention." Locke used his staff to point to a chair across from the couch where Usagi sat. "Why don't you sit and you can tell us about it."  
"I...I don't believe it.....you're from the other side...?" Googolov stammered. "I didn't think it was possible....The wa-"  
"Sit and talk."  
  
Slowly, and quietly, Googolov sat down in the chair that Locke pointed to. After he sat down, Locke sat down next to Usagi.  
  
"Warp?" Usagi's voice whispered into his ear. "I don't understand..."  
"That is how I came to this world," Locke whispered back. "Someone.....someone led me through a warped space on my planet....and it somehow connects to your world. When I went to.....investigate the first Emerald......I heard several of the Mafia workers talking of the warped space, and of this man, the scientist who led something called Project Emerald, which related to the warp."  
"Oh....but..."   
"I must find out what he knows of it, and how the information got into the hands of the Mafia." Locke turned back to Googolov. "You may begin." To Usagi, it was as if Locke was putting the scientist on trial. "At the beginning."  
"The beginning?"  
"Whenever it was that your research began." Locke's voice, while calmer, was not without a sharp hint to it. "How you came upon the idea to research the warp."  
"It is long..."  
"We have time."  
  
For a moment, it was as if Googolov was simply trying to recollect his thoughts. After two minutes, Usagi was afraid that she would see Locke angry - something which, instinct told her, was not something that was very pretty to behold.  
  
"It started in 1942." Googolov finally started. "We....there were some Russian reconnaisance troops that were helping the Allies during the battle in El-Alamein. Upon scouting several remote outposts for Nazi troops separated from the fight, our troops...found a caravan filled with Nazi troops, and what we thought was ammunition for the front line. They had a skrimish, our troops killed all of them. But when we looked for the ammunition all we found was a gem. It had originally been set up as bait for a trap. Though it wasn't much of a trap when the boys were finished with them."  
  
Googolov couldn't help but chuckle at the thought. Locke's expression did not change.  
  
"But...." Googolov continued when he saw that Locke's expression had no trace of humor on it, "They also found something they couldn't really describe - for, when they started walked towards....well, according to the troops, it was when they started walking west of the caravan they found themselves looking at something that should never have been in the desert - or on this earth - an animal that they had never seen before. Or, upon further thought, an animal that had not been heard of since ancient times - a god-like anteater. They wrote down the coordinates of where they had found it and telegraphed it to the KGB, who sent several spies down there to investigate. Then when the spies couldn't explain what it was, I was sent with a team of scientists to look into it. Our results, as well as our eyes, concluded that we had come upon some sort of ripped matter - a warp. It had been nothing like we had seen before.  
"In later years, I formulated how the warp copuld have been created - it was due to some sort of cold fusion which happened upon the impact of a metoer which struck our earth millions of years ago - long after it formed, but long before the dinosaurs - it was at some time when the Moon had been trapped into the orbit of the planet. It also destroyed any fertile vegitation that might have been growing in the area, sucking out all of the water molecules and rendering the area which it hit unable to sustain life. It is my theory as to how the Sahara Desert was created....though it is still being debated. But if my theory is true, then that is how the warp came into existance. And for millions of years, I can say that perhaps thousands of people, including, I believe, the creatures of the Controller legend of Egypt, might have stumbled upon it - though they were never to return for many reasons...  
"However, when we discovered the warp, we realized that it could be used for our purposes. As long as no one else knew about it, of course. But we felt that its position in the desert was relatively safe - no civilization, far away from well known trade routes and such. If we sent people through to the other side, no one would wonder about it - no one would know we were working there. And that is how Project Emerald was born. To oversee what was on the other side of the warp, using a combination of our own soldiers and umanned probes - relying more so on the unmanned probes, of course. We had a lab in Kozyecha, in northern Georgia, where we conducted lab research on what the umanned probes found. We found that the warp led to another planet - your planet (if you are to be believed) - with conditions similar to ours, with some alterations, which included a decreased population of some sort. But such a place could still be used strategically in some way, shape or form, be it for colonization or military operations, especially against the Allied bases in Turkey. However, it was only _if_ we could overcome several problems we found, su-"  
"Right." Locke interrupted. "But how did you get the name for the project?"  
"The project was named after the _other_ thing we found, the gem under the car of the decoy caravan. A large emerald, whi-"   
"I should have thought as much," Locke shook his head. "And you were going to attack our planet after you gathered enough information, weren't you."  
"Perhaps. But that was not our concern."  
"But I'm sure that your government would have been thrilled that there was another world just ripe for the taking - and that the gateway to it had been there since the beginning of time. I'm sure that hundreds of people found the warp and used it to their advantage, just as _you_ would have."  
"Like I said, we knew of the distortion since the time of the war," Googolov protested. "Anytime before that, we know nothing of it."  
"Perhaps so," Locke turned to the old man. "But don't deny that you _were_ planning on attacking innocent people on my planet for the sake for your Marxist doctrine."  
"It was not _my_ Marxist doctrine, sir." Googolov's eyes flashed at the insult. "It was the government's."  
"Whatever." Locke shook his head. "What happened after the plan was classified?"  
"It was 1962, Mr. Locke." Googolov replied. "We found ourselves in the missile crisis three weeks after the final plans were drafted."  
"Missile crisis?"   
"It was the closest our planet ever got to nuclear war," Googolov quickly reiterated. "It was a terrible time for both the Russians and others around the world. We had planted missiles in Cuba - only about one hundred miles away from one of our enemy countries. We almost went to war. But Premier Kruschev relented and took down the missiles. His popularity sunk, his regime was overthrown with that of Brezhnev's and Operation Emerald ceased to exist. At least in the higher parts of the obligarchy. The plan still existed in several places until the fall of the USSR."  
"Such as…?"  
"The military, of course." Googolobv thought. "And in the Treasury. The Assistant Party Treasurer Papu Atrava wished to implement the invasion as a way to efficiently grow our economy through neo-colonist means…but, fortunately, his suggestion was overturned. For…..geographical reasons. And the issue of losing good soldiers to….possible superior forces that might have been faced. Several tests had been conducted with direct use of the warp - seven men, entering the warp, never to come back. And the warp itself was too small for any type of object bigger than three feet by eight feet to fit through without causing distortions and _other_ unimaginable things that our technology and scientific knowledge have frankly no comprehension of. There was also…an unknown element, if you will which also would have affacted our findings, but we…never figured out what the unknown element was…"  
  
The name of the Assistant Treasurer once again stirred something within Usagi, but she could not quite figure out exactly what it was.  
  
"But…" Googolov looked down. "It still exists with me. All of the plans and data. Of course, Atrava still persisted in using it up until Yeltsin came to power, and from what I know he still does. But in recent years he has become….affiliated with…some shadowy organization, I suppose you can call them.Which is why I live in _secrecy_"  
"And one of those organizations would be the Russian Mafia, right?"  
  
The unexpected quip came from Locke, who simply looked at Googolov as he said it.  
  
"Well, I……" Googolov stopped.  
"You don't need to lie." Locke shook his head. "I figured as much. Incre-"  
"Locke!" The name finally became clear to Usagi. "Atrava….the guy running for the Russian presidency!"  
"Yes….." Locke looked at Usagi. "So you remember from the train…"  
"Mr. Locke…." Googolov stood up. "I'm sorry, but I am supposing that if you know of the warp then you would know of the Emeralds?"  
"Yes." Locke looked at him. "How do you know of them? Were you planning on using them for your plan?"  
"Well….yes." Googolov paused. "We had used the Emeralds that we had discovered during World War II-"  
"Hold it." Locke stood up again. "_Emeralds_? _Discovered_? But you just said your government had only one."  
"Well…" Googolov slowly replied. "With the existence of the warp we had discovered _two_ - the one which Hitler had under cartel…. And one that had naturally been there. Or at least had been there to the best of our knowledge. We brought both back to Moscow, to Kozyecha, but after several years one of them was returned to Egypt. The other….."  
"The other?"  
"………….no one knows where it is."  
"Is that so." Locke's face darkened at the scientist's words.  
"But what about Atrava?" Usagi looked at Locke. "Has he inquired recently about the project? It just…it just seems like….he wants to rejuvenate the project no matter what, for some reason."  
"If you truly must know," Googolov stood up. "He has not inquired _me_ recently. Now, if you will excuse me…."  
  
Suddenly, Locke jumped up, hellfire in his eyes as he glared at Googolov. Usagi jumped up as well, but was too late; Locke leaped onto Googolov, taking him with a grip of steel.  
  
"You haven't seen him…..ASS!" With a strength and deftness unmatched by any body builder, Locke threw the portly scientist to the wall. "That is fresh, old man. Don't you dare think you can escape so easily."  
"Locke?!?!?" Usagi gasped. "What are you doing?!?"  
"Police!!!" Fear sprang into Googolov's eyes once more. "What are you talking about?!  
"You are still keeping secrets from me!" Locke slammed the old man's head into the wall. "I will not let you get away with lying to me!"  
"I know nothing more!!!"  
"Locke!!! Stop!!!!"  
"LIES!!!!!" Locke screamed. "You are lying. He saw you recently, didn't he?!? And you gave him something!!!!"  
"No!! I _didn't_!!!" Googolov screamed back.  
"LOCKE!!"  
"NO!!!! WRONG ANSWER!!!" Locke's hand went to Googolov's neck. "WHAT DID YOU GIVE HIM?!?  
"HE ASKED ME TO GIVE HIM THE CALCULATION OF A POSITION!!!" Andrei screamed.  
"**WHAT** POSITION?!?"  
"THE POSITION OF THE WARP'S LOCATION ON THE OTHER PLANET!!!"  
  
Locke froze, and his hands let go of the scientist. Gasping, the scientist gasped, catching his breath.  
  
"The position. Of the warp."  
"Yes, the position of the warp!" Andrei shouted. "But I didn't think it would come to anything! You fool, I've been trying to tell you!! The real reason why we were unsuccessful in our tests! The position where the warp is situated several thousand feet…._over water_. I told Atrava the same thing, even when he kept mentioning the 'unknown factor' and how it would prevent him from dying. For forty years, more, I have told him that it is impossible to go through the warp and come back out alive - he would _drown_!!"  
  
The look on Locke's face reflected the horror on his face and in his heart. Usagi looked onto the scientist as well. _My god. What an ugly, old man…_  
  
"Then….you knew."  
"Knew what?!"  
"Then….you _don't_ know…the unknown factor…._was my island_." Locke began to pound the palms of his hands into his face. "My god, man! But you _knew_ of his intentions! You idiot! Why?! WHY did you GIVE him those formulas?!?!?"  
  
The Mobian slumped onto the couch, his face in his hands. Usagi watched as his body shuddered in order to fight the urge of simply ripping Googolov's head off of his shoulders. She clenched her fists, bringing her head down.  
  
"I swear to you on my life, I knew nothing of this Island you speak of!" Andrei repeated, his voice back to a lower tone. "I did not know that was the unknown factor Atrava spoke of. And even if I did, and didn't tell him anything, Atrava still has well-laid connections to the government. He's a presidential candidate, for God's sake, man! Anyone who runs for that position has the money and power to get almost anything he wants from the government…whether or not he wins."  
"Wait…." Usagi's head snapped back up. "Locke! If Atrava knew of the unknown factor being the island you lived on, that floating one, then…he must have visited the island at one point and known that it passed over the warp!!"  
"No." Locke's hallowed voice came from his palms. "I…….recall nothing of any type of human or Overlander visiting the Island before….the attack. Someone……from _my_ people……..told him."  
"Locke?"  
"I do not understand what you mean," objected Googolov. "I had the conclusion that you knew nothing of the warp's existance before coming here."  
"No….._I_ knew nothing." Locke looked back up. "But someone else on the Island did….or _does_."  
"And this someone," Usagi continued, "must also be in the Mafia, helping Atrava with his plans to capture the Emeralds and rule the world!!"  
  
Suddenly, Googolov stomped to his desk. He threw open a drawer, throwing things out as he did.  
  
"If this is so," the old man muttered, "then you must prevent him from completing that mission!"  
"Sir?!"  
"I suppose that with all of the admissions you have given me, you should have this!" Googolov gave a gasp and lunged into his bottom drawer. "A-HA!!"  
  
Usagi's eyes widened in shock when Googolov produced what was in the drawer.  
  
"That….!!!"  
  
The green gem that Googolov held in his hands glowed brilliantly within the sheet it was wrapped in. The clear cut of the gem, as well as the presence of the shelved Heart of Hestia, which began to react as the seventh stone, further radiated it and lit up the room with a bright green glow, easily outshining the artificial lights in the room. Locke looked up to see the Emerald, and his mouth dropped in shock.  
  
"The last Emerald?!?"  
  
With a reluctant sigh, Googolov set the gem on the coffee table in front of Usagi. The sailor picked it up, examining it. Locke's shocked expression did not change.  
  
"So beautiful…."  
  
Usagi turned the gem onto its side. The Emerald was partially opaque, as she could see the floor through it. However, the tint from which she could see through the talisman was green. As she turned it over more, the gem seemed to glow with a light within, and reflecting light, colored in different shades of green, danced across the ceiling and her face as she kept turning the gem over.  
_Strange…._ Usagi silently put a hand to her chest. _Something seems to welling up inside me. An internal heat from contact with this power that is contained within. My crystal. I don't know why, but it feels like, with every second passing in my hands, I feel safer with the gem in my possession….yet there is great power within the Emeralds……but it feels like that great power is waning even as I look at it…._  
  
"Please, madam." Usagi's strange feeling was wrested from her as Googolov took the Emerald from her hands. "Only handle the gem with a cloth, or gloves. The power emitted is dangerous if used improperly. It is equal to at least five hundred thousand times the power of all of the world's nuclear capability. No human could withstand that."  
"That is the Emerald we are looking for." Locke's voice came back to him after several moments of silence. "How did you keep it?"  
"If you must know," Googolov shook his head. "It is the only physical piece of evidence left of Project Emerald other than the formulas and classified documents. Everything else was destroyed by marauding capitalists when Yeltsin took over in Moscow. He ordered that the evidence of our discoveries be found and destroyed; he didn't want the United States to get the information and he could frankly care about them himself. But I was able to get to Kozyecha before the destruction started and I retrieved _this_ - the power which we used to obtain limited information and stats on the warp in Egypt. We _did_ once harness more than fourteen thousand watts of energy on a living being to see what would happen - but it was on a rat, and after it failed miserably it was never attempted again."   
"Then you knew all along." Locke's voice was once again menacing. The look of shock was gone from his face once again. "If you knew all along about the location of the Emeralds then why didn't you simply state that you had it?"  
"I didn't," Googolov replied, "because of what you first told me. I had thought that you were an agent of Atrava's; coming back to scrounge for whatever I might have had left of the original project. I didn't want to take any chances, especially if he was looking for the Emerald!"  
"If we had been agents," Locke muttered. "We would have killed you by now, wouldn't we?"  
"Well," the old man stood up, his demeanor from twenty minutes ago returning. "If you had not been so arrogant and aggressive in your interrogation of me, I would not have perceived you as such."  
"_Arrogant?!?!_" Locke's fury returned. "_Fuck_ you, you Cossack Earthian!"  
"Locke-"  
"How was I going to get _anything_ out of you by just tapdancing?!?" Locke completely ignored Usagi and kept going with his angry shouting. "What did you _expect_ me to do?!?! Be _nice_ about something this pressing?! God dammit!! Your _world_ is in danger, and all you can think of is _yourself_!!! If you weren't so interested in what would happen to _you_ and had instead simply done something to get the Emerald out of harm's way _especially_ if you _knew_ that Atrava was going to one day partake an interest in them, then why didn't you try to stop it before………it happened…….."  
  
Locke stopped himself, totally dumbstruck. Googolov's demeanor changed, becoming confused. Usagi stood up and looked into Locke's face.  
  
"Locke…..?"  
"My god." Locke sounded as if he had realized something horrible. "I was wrong too……"  
"Locke?!?"  
  
The strange revelation was quickly forgotten as the clicking sound of several guns being cocked filled the room.  
  
"DUCK!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
With a scream, Locke instinctively turned around and threw Usagi to the ground, covering her with his body. The sound of windows shattered, followed by the whizzing   
  
Suddenly, Googolov's face stiffened in the midst of the noise as his body began to shudder.  
  
"GOOGOLOV!!" Locke screamed.  
  
Riddled with bullets, and covered with blood, Googolov fell even though the bullets never let up. Usagi covered her face with her hands, crying as she did so.  
  
  
"(_FREEZE!!_)"  
  
The Mobian word was spat out to Locke as one smocked figure suddenly appeared in front of him and kicked him. Another took Usagi by the hair when he picked her up.  
  
"AAAAAAOWW!!"  
"STOP!!"  
"(_I SAID FREEZE!!_)"  
  
The shouting froze both Locke and Usagi, who turned to try to face the man who led the raid. However, hands suddenly forced their faces to look the other way. Usagi's memory suddenly sent flashes and bits of voice, the same voice, to Usagi's ears, only the voice had been in Japanese, and the man who said it had claimed to be an American.  
_This voice….._  
  
"(_Locke…._)"  
  
A black-haired man, clothed completely in black, slowly walked over to them, the Chaos Emerald from Googolov's dead body, flashing blood and gemstone in his hand. He held it in front of Locke, a sickeningly satisfied smile on his face.  
  
"(_We meet again, Locke…..it has been awhile._)" The black-haired man turned to several of the men. "_Bag the body in Russian._"  
"_Da._"  
  
The men picked up the old scientist's bullet-riddled body and carried it into another room. The horror in Locke's face only deepened as the black-haired man turned to face them once more.  
_This man…._ Usagi's memory kicked in. _The man from the dedication ceremony back in Juuban!!! It's HIM!!!! But _how?!?  
  
"(_……………It cannot be…._)" Locke's voice was barely above a whisper. "(_…………………………………………..Vanguard?_)"  
  
The sound of Googolov's body being thrown to the ground was the only other sound Usagi could hear. She gave a shudder as she looked at the destruction caused by the surprise attack  
  
"(_What's wrong, Locke?_)" Vanguard's smile became more menacing as he stepped into the shadows, further darkening himself. "(_I would be happier to see your brother if _I_ were you…_)"  
  
Suddenly, as of the words were a cue, one of the men punched Locke directly in between his legs, while another decked him in the head with the but of a semi-automatic rifle, and yet another grabbed his arm and bit into a portion near his shoulder. With a scream from the bite, followed by startled grunt of pain when he was hit in between, Locke doubled over in pain, and the men proceeded to drag him towards the door of the house.  
  
"LOCKE!!!!!!!!!" Usagi screamed.  
"(_We'll have much to talk about at my place…_)" With a chuckle, Vanguard turned towards Usagi, giving her a look of victorious contempt. "So much for your new friend, princess," he sneered in Japanese. "Let's go."  
"Wha…."  
  
Usagi's reply was a rough pull of her hair by her captors. The sound of a struck match came from the room where Googolov, and all at once flames leaped out of the room, creeping out into the living room and the kitchen. Usagi could only watch, and think, in horror as she was pulled out of the house and dragged to the back seat of a black car, the second in the line of five, the house left to burn on its own accord when the cars screeched away.  
_No…..how……_   
She was sat next to Locke, whose body slumped towards the window. Blood oozed from the spots where he was bitten and attacked. She grabbed his hand, and pressed it against her face.  
_I'm sorry…..no matter what, no matter how inconceivable it seemed to have been…..I have somehow dragged yet another person into my own problems…_ Usagi's heart sunk, both in despair and confusion. _But how could that man have-_  
Usagi's thoughts were interrupted by the loud popping sound of Googolov's house exploding. Turning, she saw in the distance a flaming inferno, which grew smaller as the cars drove further away. Yet, even in the distance, Usagi could see the flames tower from the wreckage, despite that the fuel was nothing more than a small house surrounded by nothing. It was almost as if the tower of flames was so tall that it touched the moon itself in the black sky, looking to set it on fire with the flames of a retribution that couldn't happen.  



	10. Ally

****

SOYOOZNEK  
_(Ally)_

  
  
_There is nothing here.   
  
I walk among the ruins, still smoldering in flames, hoping to find something that was left behind. When Vanguard attacked, they took everything of value to their leader, Papu Atrava, the once-and-future leader of Russia. Manuscripts depicting the history of Project Emerald. Diagrams with various formulas, depicting several of the mad scientist Andrei Googolov's works in string atomic theory. Journals depicting past projects, and projects being worked on, and projects that will be worked on.   
  
All of it will be burned when their present use is finished. And it will not be long. Everything in the house, soon to be useless. Except for one item.  
  
The seventh Chaos Emerald, which journeyed from Egypt thousands of years of ago, passing through innumerable hands, and innumerable centuries, from Ur to Gupta to Constantinople to Jerusalem, where it stood the test of time and three Crusades, to Mecca to Ulan Bator to Beijing. Then, onto the fabled ruins of Axum to the learned Timbuku to the walled Zimbabwe to the untamed Congo. All those centuries, then it went to Nice, before Napoleon lost it to Ottoman spies, who placed it in an empty tomb near the surviving Ancient Wonder of the World, and for over a century it was untouched until a new fiend, Adolf Hitler, invaded Egypt and found it. That was, of course, before the Soviets obtained it, sending it to Laboratory Kozyecha for research.   
  
Then, after fifty years, and your Cold War, to this house. And this house fell to malevolent forces, the same way malevolent forces supposedly fell to the virtuous spirit of freedom at Berlin. In violence, in a sudden, swift chain of events.   
  
I have seen my share of events, and I think back to my thoughts concerning my home world - a place that is dire straits as well. I wonder, will the disintegration of both worlds continue? Not to say that there is no hope. But I have the feeling that this warp had a hand in capturing more than just my grandson, who now lies out of the conscious mind close by. And the young boy I think of, does he still keep his promise to keep this secret of the warp from the others, even as they search, with help from some allies, for the very people whom are on Earth, participating in the violent chain of events that will determine the fate of everything these people know?  
  
My thoughts are interrupted by a powerful blast of light, which gives way to a green light that extinguishes the flames. Within it I can see what has been forgotten by Vanguard, the other who turned his back on the guardians, though for altogether different reasons that, if known to the Brotherhood in life, would have made me much like a saint in their eyes. The Heart of Hestia. I watch, quietly, as it shoots like a star away from the ruins, in search of its brothers. Just as the other brothers meet for the first time in a way they never wanted to congregate._  
  
----------------------------  
  
"…………..up. Wake up….."  
  
The stinging sensation on her cheek caused Usagi's eyes to flutter open. She knew, even before she awoke, that she had been slapped from sleep by a heavy hand. Nor was her sleep even natural; she could sift through the past several hours, but it was a time when she was drugged.   
She had attempted to escape from the car, even while Locke was unconscious, but it didn't work; she could still feel the prick of the needle on her arm, the strong grip on her arm, and the silhouette of the man who sedated her. Her sleeve told the same story, for it was speckled with red wherever the blood had spurted. The man had accidentally stuck her artery. And for all that Usagi knew, sedating her wasn't the only thing they might have done to her - the Mafia's streak with raping women was known to her, though it was really only heresay. But she shied away from the terrible thought and looked up.  
It was when she looked up that she saw the steely grey eyes of the man responsible for all that had happened.   
  
"You finally awaken." The black-haired man hmphed. "You slept like the dead. And it's not like I sedated you that heavily."  
"You!!" Usagi tried to move, but was unable to; she was chained. "You're responsible for all of this. !"  
"Heheh." The black-haired man muttered. "So, you know me in that way as well, eh? Figures that I could not trick you, princess." He did a mock bow. "But I am afraid that we met under different circumstances. They call me Vanguard in this world."  
  
Usagi blinked when he said that. She saw that she was no longer in the car, but rather she was inside a large white room. The room was completely bare, and clean, but it reminded Usagi like the inside a space station nevertheless.  
  
"And it is a sterile world, I might add." Vanguard chuckled. "The men, they took after the Americans in their research facilities."  
"Research facility?"  
"That is correct." A small smile crept onto Vanguard's face. "We like to do…..experiments here….ones of relative importance to our financier…."  
  
Vanguard's smile faded when a moan came from the right side of Usagi. Locke's eyes slowly opened to see Vanguard, and his look of anger betrayed his proud façade.  
  
"(_You._)"  
"(_Well, well, my brother is awake._)" Vanguard took Locke's face with a steel-like grip, looking into his eyes with mock surprise. "(_You seem upset to see your brother._)"  
"(_No man would be happy to see a traitor._)"  
"(_Me a traitor?_)" Vanguard's face was amused as he let go of Locke's. He began to pace in front of the two. "(_You should look at yourself. Tromping off with the humans, and this girl. Leaving your family. What would your Brotherhood say to it, I wonder?_)"  
"(_If they knew the present circumstance, they would not mind. Especially now that I know that you are involved. You've been dealing with the Russian mob this whole time, haven't you?_)"  
"My good friend," Vanguard's gray eyes shifted back and forth. "I truly do not know what you mean."  
"(_Then what are you doing here if you have nothing to do with the Emeralds?_)" Locke's tone became sharp; he wasn't fooled.  
"(_Oh, but I _do_ have important business concerning those little green gems._)" Vanguard took a handkerchief out of his pocket. "(_You misunderstand me. I am not working for those vaunted fools. On the contrary, the nitwits are working for me._)"  
"(_Working for you…?_)"  
"(_I've got a hot deal for the little babies, Locke._)" Vanguard's hand wrung the handkerchief. "(_There's a certain bidder out there who has a sweet amount of hard bills in return for the Earth Emeralds. A price, I might add, that is higher than the price the pathetic Dimitri put on your worthless Master Emerald._)"  
  
Locke's eyebrows furrowed at the comment. Usagi looked to see that his blue eyes were flashing with anger.  
  
"(_I always thought an echidna who sells out to the Dark Legion for money was the lowest scum on the universe. I'm guessing now that someone who's willing to sell out on the Dark Legion for the same reason he sold out on his family is even worse than anything Dimitri himself could ever devise._)"  
"(_You are nothing more than a miserable cur, Locke._)" Vanguard's lips purged. "(_An echidna who couldn't be guardian. Your son is doing a better job then you ever could._)  
"(_At least I can be happy that Mother did not allow _me_ to be born feet first._)"  
  
The insult sent a hard jab into Locke's face. Usagi shut her eyes to avoid watching, as well as keep the blood out of her eyes.  
  
"(_You pathetic old man._)" Vanguard suddenly grabbed Locke's arm, this time digging his hands into several deep cuts Locke received from earlier encounters, including his old wound. "(_That's all you, and father, and everyone else in that little echidna oligarchy was! Pathetic!!_)"  
"STOP!!!" Usagi finally found the voice to scream. "Stop hurting him!!!"  
"(_I have a vision that none of the Brotherhood could see. I vowed to be much more than any of you._)" Vanguard's fingers dug deeper. "(_Look at me. On the threshold of being richer and more powerful than God. And still you try to drag me down, try to conform me to the old ways. Well, guess what, I have news for you._)"  
"Darrr!!!" Locke grunted under the pressure.  
"(_If we can destroy the Floating Island, we can do anything on this planet!!!!_)"  
  
Locke's eyes widened at the comment. His face slowly went up to meet Vanguard's, his face filled with utter anguish.  
  
"(_You….._)"  
"(_Your defenses were so weak._)" Vanguard was obviously enjoying the subject. "(_Believe me, if we could have stayed, we would have. But I made sure I took a few rounds at father, of course. Loved the look on that toad's face when he fell to the ground. Your son too. Gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. Doesn't it?_)"  
  
Locke's reply was an abrupt upward movement of his face. Before Vanguard could cover Locke's mouth, warm spit covered his face. With an angry shout, Vanguard's fist pummeled Locke between the legs.  
  
"Naaar!!!!"  
"_EDE NA CHOOY!!_" Vanguard roared. "_A EDE NA VASH LYOOBOVNEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_"  
  
With an angry grimace, he turned to Usagi. His expression turned from an angry one to a more provocative look as he grabbed Usagi's face.  
  
"I wish I could have more fun with you," he commented. "If you could spread and copulate for a foreign prince to your world, or for this piece of crap, you could have been a more then easy lay for a man like me…"  
  
Usagi's eyes flashed at the comment. With another movement, Vanguard stooped down, as if to go and kick Locke. But instead, he suddenly turned back up to Usagi and, with the contemptuous add-on of his slimy tongue, locked his lips with hers, kissing her deeply.  
  
"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!"  
  
Usagi's eyes widened in terror as she attempted to pull her face away. But it was to no avail; his grip was too strong.  
_He's too strong!!!_ Usagi's eyes clenched shut. _Get away from me!!! Horrid old pervert!!!!! LET ME GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!_  
Suddenly, Usagi's eyes popped open, flashing angrily. A white glow came from her chest, engulfing her in a bright light.  
  
"Mmm?!….Ah….AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Vanguard's lips suddenly ripped off of Usagi's, and his hands flew from her face. He staggered back, falling to the ground, his hands to his lips.  
  
"Leave…..me alone….." Usagi gasped. _Where did that come from?!?_  
  
Vanguard looked up at Usagi with rage in his eyes. His lips were a rosy red, and the color trickled down his face.  
  
"Oh, sure, I'll leave you alone," he snarled. "It's not even worth letting you live, is it?"  
  
When Usagi gave him no reply, Vanguard got up and walked away, slamming the door as he did.   
  
_God……_ Usagi cried. _I wish there was someone who could help us. Here's no one here friendly to either of us…..Please!!!! Powers, please let someone come and save us before its too late!!!_  
  
-------------------  
  
Without another word, Vanguard walked away from the room, glaring to each side.  
  
"Take these two spies," Vanguard angrily called out to a sniper guard as he walked off, pointing to the room, "and dispose of them!"  
  
--------------------------  
  
"Is this the place?"  
  
Nine figures looked upon an icy mountain, the snow blowing softly on them.  
  
"This is the place." Haruka turned to Mamoru. "Are you ready?"  
"I am ready." Mamoru nodded. "I will fight."  
"Right, girls!" Haruka took out her transformation pen. "How about everyone else."  
"Right!" Was the enthusiastic reply.  
"Let's go!!" Minako help up her transformation pen. "Sailor Team Crystal Power!!"  
"MAKE-UP!!!!"   
  
Everyone's pen flashed, engulfing the group in a warm light. The warm light then dissipated,  
revealing the sailor soldiers as they ran to the mountain to save their leader.  
  
-------------------------  
  
"(_…………I can feel it._)"  
  
The green monster's head twitched. Atrava looked up from his computer to see it growling, a green aura around it.  
  
"(_Feel what?_)"  
"(Them.)" The green monster's teeth were clenched. "(_Them from Tokyo. They have followed their leader. To us. She led them to us._)"  
"(_Truly._)" A sinister chuckle came from Atrava. "(_They want so badly to save their precious Selenity. They expect to fight a guardian. And they shall, won't they?_)"  
  
The green monster gave a chuckle as he cracked his knuckles in understanding.  
  
"(_Why don't you show them what they will have to do to get to her?_)" Atrava turned back towards his computer. "(_I want to see what they will do. Then, I will crush them, as I always desired….heheh…._)"  
  
The green monster gave a nod of compliance before disappearing from the room.  
  
---------------------------  
  
_"LEAVE HER ALONE!!!!!!!"_  
  
The blood spilled into a puddle of dark crimson. Then, there had been nothing of consciousness for the mass for what would have felt like centuries. The first pangs of consciousness returning startled the mind into waking.  
_........................Uuuuuuuuuuuu................_  
First, there was nothing but black. Then, everything became a hazy red as the opaque violet eyes slowly opened.   
_Where am I...._  
Its hair floated gently around it, softly lapping with the pulse of the water. The eyes, confused and scared, looked at its surroundings as best it could.  
_What.....what has happened?!?!  
  
"No!!! Let me go!!!!! Let her go!!!!"  
  
I......I can't move!!!_ The eyes widened in despair and anguish as the mass found that the coldness had numbed its body into nothing more than a motionless shell. _Coldness!! I can't save _him_! I can't save myself!!!!!_  
Suddenly, a burst of green shattered some of the redness that surrounded the mass. In a shock, the eyes saw the red around her turn green. A small, low-pitched sound began to emulate inside the glass.  
_What....is this.........It can't be!!!!!!_  
The green glow became brighter, and the glass became to tinkle and crack as the sound became higher-pitched.  
_Knuckles!!!!!!!_  
  
Suddenly, the glass shattered, and the black mass fell along with the currents of the toxins which had kept it in captivity since as far back as the mass, whom under the red shell was really a small pink echidna, could remember, at least up to the times after the atrocities she had witnessed, which was recent in truth, but ages in her thoughts. Gasping and coughing, the girl struggled to make use of her arms and legs, which at the moment forgot the coordination it had been taught, sending her to the floor again. Above her, the Heart of Hestia glowed, pulsing a green light.  
  
_Huahhh........Knuckles.............._ The creature coughed. _I will...........save you........._  
  
-----------------------------  
  
With a gasp, Usagi turned to Locke, her face filled with worry.  
  
"Locke!!!…."  
"……I'm…….ok……"  
"Locke, there must be some way to get out of these chains!"  
  
Usagi grunted as she pulled in vain on the ropes that binded her. _I…..I have to use that power!!!!….But…..I don't know where it can from…..or where it went to…._  
  
"I don't understand, Usako." Locke muttered. "If Atrava knows all about the emeralds from researching the Master Emerald…..how is it possible? And why would he still be interested in ruling the world if he knew the Emeralds' destructive properties……there would be nothing left to rule."  
"Maybe….Nrrr!!!…." Usagi clenched her teeth. "Maybe he used something else in his research to try to prove……"  
  
Usagi turned to Locke, her eyes wide. Locke looked up at her, and the two simply stared at each other, their eyes wide with shock.  
  
"You…..called me….._Usako_….."  
"I…" His mistake of letting her onto his thoughts hit him. "I didn't mean….."  
"No, it's……it's ok." Usagi gave a smile. "It…..was an honest mistake."  
"But its what your……" Locke found himself forcing the word out. "….boyfriend calls you, isn't it?"  
"Yes, but……" Usagi looked down. "I know it was an honest mistake."  
"Y-y-yes, it was…" Locke could feel his face flushing. "I……don't want to……imply any ideas, but…….you look rather cute when you're struggling."  
  
Usagi turned up towards him, and began to chuckle when Locke's face was turning redder than the blood that trickled down it.  
  
"Um……it's ok….." _Why is he so red?! He's kind of a weird old man….but it's ok…_ "I understand it was a mi-"  
"_ASTANOVKA!!!_"  
  
The two suddenly froze when they heard the shout, followed by the sound of a loading gun barrel.  
  
"Us-aagi Skino," a man's halted Japanese suddenly rang out, "Lowhke. Bot haf you have bien fond to be spiiees farom Muscow, ahnd weil be excecoted…"  
  
-------------------------  
  
The group of sailors looked onto the two large metallic masses of steel, astounded.  
  
"A spaceship..!!!"  
"No doubt," Mercury scanned the hull, "This type of technology is on the cutting edge. Far superior and much faster than the Americans."  
"You think this is a government bunker?"  
"Not a chance." Saturn shook her head. "The Russian economy is so low they would have to pay everything they owned to finance just a seat for a spaceship like this. No. This is black market."  
"And in Russia, that's controlled by the Mafia." Mamoru shook his head.  
"Hmmm…." Venus rubbed her chin. "Which mafioso does Anonymous work for, I wonder?"  
"A rich one, for sure, but we'll find out the exact identity soon enough." Mars looked at the spaceships. "Let's split up. I'll head a team over towards that door behind the second spaceship." She pointed. "You guys go into that door over there." She then pointed to another door. "And there's the elevator. We'll meet back here in one hour, or communicate to each other, if we aren't able to get back. Right?"  
"Right!!!!!!!"  
  
The group of sailor then separated, not noticing the green figure on top of one of the spaceships, watching as they left.  
  
"(_Stupid humans…._)"  
  
---------------------  
  
Usagi looked on with hopelessness as the gunman shifted his gun from left to right, silently choosing which of his two hostages would die first.  
_No. Noooo…._ A tear formed in her eye as her thoughts refocused to memories. _I don't want to die. I can't die! There are so many people in danger! My friends, my family! Mamo-chan! And Naru…..and those inflicted with emerald flesh……..and Locke……..I have to save them!!!!!! I have t-_  
  
**BAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!!!!!**  
  
The gunman suddenly shuddered, bullets shattering his torso from the back. Blood splattered onto the wall as the bullets simply tore through him.  
  
"What?!?!?!" Locke shouted.  
"Aaaaah!!!!"   
  
Usagi shut her eyes. Her thoughts returning to Googolov as he met a similar fate at the hands of Vanguard, she simply covered her ears.  
  
"Duaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!"  
  
The gunman's eyes rolled back as he fell to the ground. A figure stood behind him, standing in the shadows, the smoke still resonating from the barrel.  
  
"….KNUCKLES!!!!!!" A shrill voice suddenly came from the figure as it ran towards the two. "I'M HERE……..to……."  
  
The figure slowly shuffled its feet until it stopped. The gun dropped out of its hands and clattered to the floor.   
  
"………..He's………not here…….."  
  
Locke gave a gasp as he saw the figure in the light. It was a pink _thing_, a female echidna, with strands of pink and metal dreadlocks that cascaded down to her knees. She wore a black shirt, and at her waist was a belt with a gun holster.  
  
"It………." Locke looked as if he were going to faint with joy.  
"Eh?" The girl looked up. Her eyes grew wide, and she quickly picked the gun back up and pointed it at Locke. "Who are you?!? And where did Knuckles go?!?"  
"…………………………………..Julie-Su?….Is….that you?!?!?"  
  
The shocked tones of Locke's voice, as well as the fact that Julie-Su noticed that the gun was empty of ammunition, caused her to aim the gun down.  
  
"You…..how did you know my name?"  
"My god…." Locke's voice cracked. "I thought everyone died……but I'm not alone……..someone survived!"  
"Someone….?!?!" Julie-Su gave a gasp. "Wait a minute!! Your voice!!!! _LOCKE_?!?!?!?"  
"Then you know it's me!!"  
"Another echidna? Here?" Usagi was just as surprised. "Julie-Su? What a stra-"  
"I don't…know…" Julie-Su's surprised face turned into one of confusion. "You sound like Locke, but you look like an Overlander…"  
"They call themselves humans." Locke replied. "But I can prove to you who I am…"  
  
Suddenly, Locke's body shifted, and he was an echidna. Usagi's eyes grew wide as he took his hands out of the chains and rubbed his wrists.  
  
"……Damn." He muttered. "I should have thought about doing this before…."  
"Oh, um…….well….." Julie-Su began to sweat. "I guess that's proof enough…."  
"Now……." Locke jumped up onto Usagi and began to mess with her locks. "You….said……mmmnngh….something……about-"  
"Knuckles. Yes." Julie-Su looked down. "Knuckles is alive."  
  
The struggle with the chains stopped. Usagi, however, could feel the chains shake from his hands.  
  
"Alive…."  
"Well….._was_ alive when I was captured." Julie-Su's head was kept down. "When they killed the Dark Legion…..Knuckles protected me……but somehow they managed to lure us into a trap……in that desert. Then I was placed into a sastitube, while Knuckles…God…..he….all I remember was that they were dragging him away, and he was screaming for them to let me go….and that's it."  
  
Julie-Su's hands went to her side, clenched. Without another word, Locke began to resume his work. For several minutes, there was no voices, only the sound of Locke struggling with Usagi's confines.   
_Alive….._ Usagi's thought became hopeful. _Locke's son….could be alive still!…._  
Finally, a loud clanking pop came from Usagi's hands, and she was free.  
  
"We must not waste any time." Locke finally said. His tone was somber as he transformed back into human form in a flash of light. "We must find Atrava and confront him with his crimes before its too late."  
"But we don't have any Chaos Emeralds to use to our advantage," Usagi objected. "He might have all of them!"  
"I have one."  
  
Julie-Su took out the Heart of Hestia from her dreadlocks. Usagi and Locke gasped.  
  
"The Heart of Hestia!!!"  
"Yeah." Julie-Su looked it over. "Its power let me free."  
"How?" Locke was in disbelief. "Wait….we left it at Googolov's. They didn't take it!"  
"But it let me go free!"  
"The only way that it would be capable of doing that is if someone summoned it and willed it to free you…" Locke became confused. "…..but only…..only a Controller Emerald….."  
"Huh?" Usagi looked at Locke.  
"……Never mind." Locke's voice returned to normal. "Let us find that madman before its too late. And God help us if we find Vanguard beforehand….."  
  
Without another word, the three ran out of the room, leaving the guard in his blood. Before they completely left, however, Usagi absentmindedly picked up her bag, containing her brooch and the Silver Crystal, which had been hanging up near the door.  
  
----------------------------  
  
"This way!!!!"  
  
Uranus gave a huff as she rounded a corner of the hallway. Three other sailors - Mercury, Jupiter and Pluto - followed.  
  
"A great power is closeby," Pluto looked into her Garnet Orb. "It must be her!"  
"Let's keep going!!" Mercury turned on her communicator. "Sailors! Can you hear me? We're closing in on something!"  
"..........No reply again?!?" Jupiter shouted. "Nobody has responded to our calls?!"  
"I don't like the way this is...." Pluto suddenly stopped. "WAIT!!!!!!!"  
"Pluto?!?!?!?!"  
  
Suddenly, a blast of green light shot down the hall, hitting Pluto directly in the back. Her rod flew out of her hands, clattering to the floor.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!"  
"PLUTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Mercury and Jupiter attempted to jump to Pluto's aid as the sailor of time began to fall, but instead found themselves in another blast of green light, falling in the same way as the others.  
  
"GUYS!!!!"  
  
Uranus went to pick them up, but was stopped by the sound of footsteps. She looked up to see a small black dot in the distance of the hall, walking towards her.  
  
"_Pathetic..._" A voice suddenly filled into Uranus' head. "_Like twigs. Easy to break._"  
"Huh?!" Uranus jumped back at the sound of the voice. _This accent....is different.........not Russian...._  
"_Correct._"  
  
Suddenly, the black figure flashed, and Uranus found herself staring at a strange green creature. It took the sailor a moment, but it was then that recognition hit her.  
  
"...........YOU!!!!"  
"_In the flesh, Sailor Uranus._" The green monster gave a smile. "_In the flesh._"  
"WHAT?!?!?!?!"  
  
Uranus barely had time to dodge another blast from the monster, landing on her feet as she did.  
  
"How....did you know my name?!?"  
"_I know everything._" The garnet rod cracked and snapped under the weight of the creature as it approached Uranus. "_And I know that you do not stand a chance. Like your friends._"  
  
Suddenly, visions of the other soldiers falling to the monster filled Uranus' mind. She gave a scream.  
  
"NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! LIES!!!!!!!! YOU WILL NEVER BEAT THE SAILORS!!!!!" The soldier took out her space sword and jumped up. "SPACE SWO-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!"  
  
Uranus was suddenly electrocuted by large amounts of energy upon the sword's touching the creature. With a scream, then a moan, Uranus fell to the ground, bruised and unconscious.  
  
"(_Figures._)"  
  
With a casual wave of his hand, the green monster surrounded the unconscious sailors with a green aura. Their bodies shifted and dissipated as the green monster walked away.  
  
"(_This is only the mild taste, Locke...._)" The green monster muttered. A smile formed on his face. "(_I pray for your soul to rest in peace when I am finished. Heheheh...._"  
  
A low rumbling sound could be heard from below him. With another contemptous huff, the green monster disappeared from the hallway, the thoughts of spilling blood filling him with true desire and hate with each passing moment.  



	11. Controller?

****

KONTROLEIR?  
**_(Controller?)_**

  
  
_"Sailor Moon....."  
  
The friends are devastated. They lay in wait, the fate they are handed welting all over their skin. Blood. Pain. Duty. It is one and the same to them.   
  
But it was normally the other way around. The enemies were to be the ones on the ground, crying, broken, beaten by the enemy they had so underestimated as being nothing more than girls. The enemies of Earth were always the ones to be defeated.  
  
It is not so this time. The tables have irrefutably turned.  
  
And all have crashed before them, in a strange reversal, where the victor is the creature that stands over them, a mockin smile upon his face. For the irony of the soldiers' situation is not completely lost on him.  
  
_"(Master, where do these pitiful humans go?)"  
"(Over in this compartment.)"_ The voice of Atrava filled the room. _"(In the bags. They'll be of use to us later. Remember, when I appear in the ship....)"_  
  
The creature nods, understands, and obeys. This creature, once near and dear to a group of people he called his family and friends, now nothing more than a ruthless killer who wants nothing more than revenge on the very man who helped to make him who he was. His enemy. His father.  
  
For destroying the race of their origins. For placing personal gain over his people's survival. For abandoning the people to search for more power. All reasons that, if one looks under Atrava and Vanguard's careful and slippery words of pseudoanger, never truly give his father the true benefit of the doubt.  
  
In other words, the father must die for all the reasons that the father is even fighting the cold Russian in the first place. For everything Atrava did, the father must die because, imbedded into the jaded mind of the creature by his uncle and boss, it _was_ the father who did it all. Not the men who were truly responsible.  
  
Revenge is a funny thing. It can turn over civilizations, burn a man up with hatred, but in the end, all you truly have is millions of people starving here, and others trying to blow you up there. It doesn't change anything for the better, like you might have thought, and if anything does change, it's only for the worse.  
  
Like I said, funny..._  
  
  
--------------------  
  
"Huh?!"  
  
Sailor Moon's head snapped up.  
_My friends...?!?_  
  
"I don't know, Locke...." Julie-Su looked around uneasily. "This place is a complete maze after Sector 5. This is as far as I remember."  
"Well," Locke replied as he adjusted his hat, which he retireved from one of the guards they subdued, "I guess then that we're both new to this. Usagi?"  
"....Eh?" _My head. In the distance, I can hear the cries...._ "What?"  
"Do you remember this path? I think this might have been the way we went when they brought us here, but I could very much be wrong."  
"I....I'm not sure." The thoughts of her friends mixed in with her hazy memories of the ride to that room. "I think.....I don't know. I don't really remember."  
"Well, then we're just going to have to do this cold turkey."  
"Don't worry." Julie-Su looked around. "I have the feeling he's nearby. I don't know....why I do, but....I do."   
  
Julie-Su loaded the laser she held, which she snatched from another guard. The gun that she had obtained from the room she was held in, she had given to Locke after their tussle with the guards, who promptly handed it to Usagi, who turned into Sailor Moon and threw it into an empty room. Without another word, she put it into her holster.  
  
"Besides, as long as he doesn't have the Controller, it's no problem. I hope."  
"Controller?" Sailor Moon's head cocked up at that. "What's the Controller?"  
"Well..." Julie-Su hesitated upon looking at Sailor Moon. "I...don't know..."  
"It's an Emerald on our planet." Locke stepped in. "Controller Emerald is....sort of like a nullifier, whose point of existance is to....nullify Chaos Emeralds."  
"An Emerald that can..." Sailor Moon's face became contorted with confusion. "But....if such an Emerald exists, why....was it not mentioned in that book or by...by that man?"  
"I don't know." Locke muttered. He scratched his chin in thought. "Perhaps they know nothing about the Controller, or....when they were using the Master Emerald....hopefully, they didn't figure out about the Controllers then. I....I completely forgot about the possibility of a Controller Emerald of this world. But, of course, the Emeralds of Earth obviously work differently than the ones on our world do, so of course its possible that no one could know about it...It might not do good to go and look for it now, anyways." Locked looked back up. "But we can use it to our advantage. If Atrava doesn't know, then we can bluff it."  
"Let's hope Vanguard or Atrava doesn't call our bluff, then, if we find him." Julie-Su held out her hand after a moment. "Ready?".  
"I suppose so...."  
"Come on, Locke, team spirit." She kept her hand out. "We're going to need it. For Knuckles....and this world."  
"...........For Knuckles." Locke slowly put his hand over Julie-Su's.  
"Sailor Moon?"  
"Oh." Putting her hand over theirs, her thoughts could not dismiss her bad feeling about what was happening to her friends. "For everyone. Friends who are here, friends who aren't. For them."  
  
------------------------  
  
"Hmmm...."  
  
Atrava frowned as he looked over the papers, which were all written in a skaky Russusian dialect. The disgusted look onhis face revealed his anger over the information which Googolov learned in his fifty years of research.  
  
"_Nechego. Nechego!_" he muttered. His head cocked to the side. "_(These papers conatin nothing I don't know, Vanguard.)_"  
"_(Eh?)_"  
  
The black echidna's eyes grew wide as he entered. It was the first time in a while that he had been out of human form - in fact, the first time in years - and it was a shock that his boss even knew he was apporaching.  
  
"I didn't know that you-"  
"I knew you were coming in, Vanguard." Atrava's voice did not hide his disgust. "I an rather disappointed in the worthless quality I am getting from you at so late an hour in the operation."  
"I beg your pardon?"  
"They've escaped." Atrava's voice was sharp. "With _her_."  
"What?" Vanguard's eyes grew wide. "Impossible..."  
"Is it now?"  
  
Atrava looked at the echidna with flashing eyes, and for the first time in his life, Vanguard felt tinges of fear well up within him.  
  
"It seems you are incompetent in fulfilling your duties as a mercenary." Atrava looked away. "Perhaps I should take care of them myself."  
"What?!"  
"Prepare your ship." Atrava muttered. "Go now."  
  
Without another word, the black echidna walked out of the room. Atrava gave an evil smile as he looked over to the six emeralds, all in place holders on a platform.  
  
"Come to me...." the emeralds began to glow. "I know how to bring you here. You;re not too far away now. Come, and I will show you the way, princess......the way to oblivion............"  
  
--------------------------------  
  
"WAIT!!!"  
  
Suddenly, Sailor Moon turned around and ran towards another direction.  
  
"SAILOR MOON!!"  
  
Julie-Su and Locke ran after her, but Sailor Moon was too quick. She turned to the right, down the maze of corridors, her thoughts racing.  
_He's here........_ she thought as she turned another corner. _He's here....I can.....I can...._  
Suddenly, a new door appeared where there hadn't been one.  
  
"WHAT?!" Julie-Su huffed. "A secret passage!"  
"Usagi!!!" Locke shouted. "Wait!!!"  
  
The door opened, and inside stood a man. A man with silver locks in his hair, but only at his temples. A man who wore all black. A man whose arms were raised up, a man who was standing on a podium with six glowing emeralds around him.  
  
**_"Atrava!!!!"_**  
  
The man stopped, and turned to face the three. Sailor Moon stopped as well, staring at the man who now stood on the podium with the six emeralds.  
  
_This man…..I have seen him before!_….  
  
"You escaped, princess." The matter-of-factly way that the Communist put it made her shiver. "And I see you freed the Legionaire as well. No thanks to Vanguard, naturally…."  
"Princess….!?" Sailor Moon's eyes grew wide.  
"Damn you…."  
"And Locke." Atrava gave a smile, a dark, cruel smile, to the guardian. "A pleasure to finally meet you! Your brother Vanguard has spoken _volumes_ of your prolific career. Such a pity to see you out of your physical element, in this room, looking to _me_ for vengeance…"  
"SHUT UP!!"   
  
With an angry yell, Locke grabbed a plank from the wall and jumped on Atrava.  
  
"LOCKE?!?" Julie-Su screamed.  
"Hmph." Atrava muttered. "Echidnas. You never learn."  
  
Locke suddenly stopped in mid-air, screaming. A force field had materialized in front of Atrava and the Emeralds, throwing him across the room.  
  
"Nrrrgh!!" Locke slammed into a wall, collapsing to the ground.  
"No!!!"  
"Bravo, guardian! Your taste for venegance is admirable!" Atrava threw his hair back, laughing.   
"Asshole! How dare you mock him like that, you murderer!!" Julie-Su cocked her gun.   
"Stand firm, Julie-Su." Atrava's voice turned towards the pink echidna. "The force field that I have created will do the same to your little bullet as it did to Locke. Googolov's string-atom theory certainly came in handy with the podium, don't you think, princess?"  
"Stop calling me that!!!" Sailor Moon angrily shouted. "I don't know you, and you wouldn't know any such thing like that!"  
"Wouldn't I? Fool!" Atrava's eyes flashed. "I have dealt with the curse of knowing for an eternity."  
"Liar! What are you talking about?!"  
  
Sailor Moon's moon sign suddenly flashed, and her hands immediately went to her head.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGGGGGGH!!!!!!!!!"   
  
The stinging sensation shot from her head all the way down to her legs, turning them into jelly. She gave another scream as she fell, unaware of Atrava's snorting.  
  
"Annoying heffer…"  
"USAGI!!"   
  
Locke began to run towards her, but suddenly fell to the ground, gasping.  
  
"Locke?!?!?!?!?" Julie-Su also fell to the ground, gasping.  
"Interesting." Atrava pretended to comtemplate. "Enerjak…..or should I say your ancestor Dimitri, Julie-Su….his use of chaos energy to stem air circulation is becoming fast useful to me. How wonderful."  
"Nnnnnngh…" Locke gasped. "U………..Usagi!………."  
  
-----------------  
  
_Locke's shouts and gasps did not reach Usagi as she slowly opened her eyes.  
  
"Huh….?"  
  
She was inside a small, wooded forest, wearing a red hood over a long red dress. She slowly got herself up, looking around to see vivid white, green and red colors around her, on the trees and ground, and especially on her hood, as she looked around. Up in the distance, there was a clearing, the beautiful earthmoon shining brilliantly. Around her, strange images seemed to instantly project upon the trees, only to disappear within seconds.  
  
"Where…..where am I…so beautiful…" She noticed a basket, and picked it up. "What…is this?…"  
"You are in your psyche." A voice suddenly boomed behind her. "Your subconscious brain area. Going to Grandma's, Red Riding Hood?"  
  
  
  
**"There are three rules that all keepers must abide by," A silver-haired woman with a moon sign noded to a young man carrying a staff. "You must never leave your post. You must never let anyone from our kingdom through. But most importantly, you must stop any evil that might come through here. Failure will lead to cruel punishment."**  
  
  
  
Usagi swerved to see another red echidna walking towards her from behind a tree. He wore a pair of costume wolf ears.   
  
"Oh!" She gave a gasp.  
"Oh, don't mind me, princess," the echidna muttered as he adjusted his glasses. "I only saved your brain from being well done and served to some unsuspecting family in Atrava's restaurants down in Bladograd."  
"Truly….?" Usagi looked at the echidna confusedly. "I thought……for certain….you were a-"  
"Wolf?" The echidna looked around. "No. I am serving in place of your subconscious, which is, at the moment, incapacitated. See? The green indicates contamination by Emerald energy."  
"Eme…" Memories began to flood Usagi. "Of course!!! The Earth Emeralds!!"  
"Quick, I can see." The echidna looked over Usagi's subconscious clothing. "Nice. Red Riding Hood, huh? I suppose then that you are a virgin?"  
"I beg your pardon?!?" The sudden turn of the conversation took Usagi by surprise.   
"No, wait, you're not." The echidna shook his head. "But…….you see it as an escape, no?"  
"See what as….!!!!!" Usagi could feel a bit of anger well up within her.   
"Desire, of course…'getting it on', so to speak…"  
"How dare you make assumptions that all I think about is sex!"  
"No, I make no assumptions, princess." The echidna held up Usagi's red hood. "Why else would you be wearing red in your subconscious psyche? Why not orange, or blue, or Venetian sand? You don't think about it, per se, but you subconsciously wish you _could_ get a bit at this moment of anxiety. Who would blame you? But….no offense intended!" The echidna quickly asserted himself as Usagi's hand went up to slap him. "You also have a good quotient of white around you. It means that you are duly pure, or at least faithful to your Mamo-chan. Really, you have no need to slap me, but if you wish to…..whose the basket for?"  
"The basket…." Usagi, though becoming irritated by the echidna's dodging, decided to satisfy him with an answer. "I found it, ok?"  
"Is that so?"  
"I suppose there's a meaning to this to?" Usagi's tone became more annoyed.  
"Suppression."  
"Sexual, I assume…"  
"No. Memories."  
  
  
  
**"Sir!"  
  
Up in the distance of a white castle, a young girl bowed down to a silver-haired man. Both stood next to a large doorway, adorned with words of a foreign language.  
  
"Great sir." The girl looked up. "I wish to see the blue satellite that I always dreamed of. I know its forbidden by law, but would you allow me to pass through?"**  
  
  
  
Usagi stopped, and looked at the echidna thoughtfully.  
  
"Memories?"  
"Of course." The echidna snatched the bag from Usagi and looked it over. "Aah. Russian lumber was made to make this. See? The poor quality. And the clasp….a moon sign."  
"A….." Realization dawned on Usagi. "It can't mean…."  
"The key to understanding." The echidna nodded. "Memories pertaining to your life on the moon - suppressed for whatever reason - your mother or you consciously doing it yourself, not sure….but this basket holds everything. Memories from your other life that you haven't faced, or ones you have intentionally allowed yourself to forget because they are too painful. But it has all you would need to know of a Russian who has recently entered your life."  
"Russian….." Usagi's face fell. "Atrava."  
"Why the glum face?" the echidna looked up to see Usagi's trembling body. "Now, Little Red Riding Hood, there's no need to be saddened. This is one time you don't have to face it alone. Why don't you and I look into this basket……together?"  
  
Usagi looked up at the echidna with wide eyes.  
  
"You….would look into the basket with me?"  
"Of course. If you're too frightened. And from the looks of it, I think you are upset, not yet ready to face what might be in this box, alone. But you know you'll have to do it someday, so let's make it today. Come."  
  
  
  
**"I should love to let you through," The man had smiled. "But remember, this is all a secret. I won't tell anyone I let you through if you don't utter a word of this either."**  
  
  
  
The echidna held out his gloved hand, beckoning her come. Very reluctantly, Usagi reached her hand, only to pause.  
  
"Who are you?"  
"Hmm?"  
"Your….your name." Usagi's hand drew back. "I'm not so sure unless I can trust you won't eat me alive."  
"Ms. Tsukino," the echidna gave a chuckle. "If you really want to know, I already had lunch with your Grandma. I assure you that I won't eat you lest I give myself a stress ulcer or a heart attack from fatty foods, whichever comes first."  
"…………Ok……….." Usagi looked confused.   
"If you truly wish to know, my name is Edmund. Now, come." Edmund held out his hand. "Let's look into this basket and pick out the rotten fruit, shall we?"  
  
  
  
**"The time is soon, highness." The silver-haired man looked up at the moon. "The eclipse is upon the world I come from. And soon the hated ones will be blotted out forever."**  
  
  
  
After another moment, Usagi's hand folded into Edmund's and the two went out under the stars, and beneath the bright Earth satellite, to picnic._  
  
-------------------------  
  
  
"……………………………………RaaaaaaaaAAAAAAH!!!!"  
  
Sailor Moon's eyes snapped open. Gasping, she took out her tier and pointed it at Atrava, whose head snapped to her direction.  
  
"YOU!!!!!!"  
"You awaken quickly." Atrava's eyes flashed. "Surprising. I thought you would have been dead from that."  
"Papu Atrava….." Sailor Moon's eyebrows furrowed. "…..Or should I say Desduvius?"  
  
A cruel smile formed on Atrava's face. But not even that could hide his anger of being revealed.  
  
"You remember me, then."  
"Desduvius?!" Locke gasped as he struggled to get up. "Usagi, what do you-"  
"I remember you." The memories, locked away long ago, materialized in from of the soldier. "You were the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper of Silver Milennium! The queen trusted you to keep out dark spirits. But you always shunned the rules in your duty. You let me though to earth because you knew that my presence there would anger the people of Earth and bring them to battle with the moon! You made a deal with Beryl and told her when the eclipse would be so that they could attack! You slapped my mother in the face with your dishonorable, unspeakable atrocities…"  
"Wha…?" Julie-Su gasped. "I…..I don't understand…….what….you mean!!!"  
"Heh. You think the same way as your mother did when she cursed me."   
"Cursed you?! Then you deserved whatever she punished you with."  
"I did the _right_ thing in allowing Metallia into Silver Milennium, princess."  
"It was _genocide_ you allowed!!" Sailor Moon screamed. "You killed an entire civilization!!!!"  
"You deserved it!"  
  
The words were a slap to Sailor Moon's face  
  
"I was the glorious one who protected you and your family!" Atrava angrily shouted in reply. "I held the world in my hands. I should have been given great rewards for keeping spirits out that would have otherwise destroyed your fragile little world. But your _dear_ mother, your _beloved_ people, to all of them and you I was nothing more than a cuckold. Just something to take for granted, to use up like money, a worthless boy in a job that could spell the end of everything for them and you!"   
  
Atrava began to laugh as he paced, looking straight into Sailor Moon's eyes as he did. His eyes steamed with anger.  
  
"What choice did I have? I had to show them. Show you. Show that without me the world would be as wasted as death itself. So I broke the rules to prove the point I made. But I made it, and my position, it was understood. Your kingdom didn't survive without me. But what is the thanks I get for showing the way?! Life! But not just life, life _eternal_. My punishment from Queen Serenity for showing her how important I _really_ was. Do you know?! Know how it feels to live, live cursed, knowing that all of the waiting that you do for death does no good, because death will never come?!" Atrava gave a growl at this. "Of course not. You have been reincarnated, through flesh and bone, and have been relieved by happy death each time. But I have had no rest. Until now."  
  
Atrava snapped his hand, and the emeralds around him glowed. Locke and Julie-Su gasped, free from the power that the Communist had them under.  
  
"I sensed them when the power of the Silver Crystal died out. The Earth Emeralds. For centuries I followed them, hoping to unite them all and fulfill my deepest wish: to meet death. But there were humans who always thwarted me. Humans who learn of my plans and shuffled them off, having them end up in the hands of foolish Asian masters, decrepit Indian chiefs and their squaws, or incompetent European radicals." The anger was still there, but a smirk returned to Atrava's face. "But the cards are in my hands now. The Bloc, then the fall of the Soviet Union, the messy implementation of the Independent Commonweath - it was the plays I had been waiting for. The errors the humans have made in bringing Emeralds to this country, where nuclear information falls through the cracks as easily as change. And the globalization of news, and media, and the arts - splendid idea. I learned where more than half of the Emeralds were without ever having to spill one drop of blood. And I know that dear Locke knew about most of the Emeralds in the same way, isn't it so, Locke?"  
"Leave Locke out of this!" Julie-Su shouted. "He's not a part of your stupid vengeance plan anyways, is he? It was all about _her_!!"  
"No, Julie-Su." Locke shook his head. "I am in as deep as you are. And you are in as deep as I."  
"Yes." Atrava's smile became more sinister. "And by that standard - because you were involved with trying to stop me - you must die. As must everyone else suffer your fate."  
"What….?!"  
  
The three looked at Atrava, whose eyes, though they kept staring at Sailor Moon, seemed to spark with triumph against all who stood against him.  
  
"You………" Sailor Moon's grip on the tier was almost lost. "You wouldn't!!"  
"Why not?" Atrava seemed pleased with the soldier's reaction. "These pathetic humans, if I took them over all they would do is whine and rebel. And besides, I'm not into world domination, nor do I want anyone else to take the spoils of this planet. It's all rotten, anyways. There's no use for humans in the universe. They have all defied me, and I have vowed that those who deified me in my search will meet a terrible death….and so they shall! Including friends, family, loved ones or yours….and all others…….will perish under my wrath!"  
"NOO!!!!!!!!" Sailor Moon screamed.  
"Heheheheh…"  
"Yeah right!!"  
  
Atrava's pleasure of watching Sailor Moon suffer at the thought was interrupted by the cocking of Julie-Su's gun.  
  
"You may think you have the upper hand in all this," Julie-Su pointed the laser at Atrava, "But you're nothing more than an idiot if you think you can just destroy this world just like that!!"  
"Julie-Su!! Don't shoot!!"  
"Besides," Julie-Su ignored Locke's shout of protest. "you're forgetting one thing, ass! If you're so cultured about the Emeralds, you would know that there's a Controller to bind those Earth gems you've got there!"  
"No! Don't tell him!!" Locke screamed.  
"Is there now." Atrava seemed unimpressed by the news.  
"You bet there is!" Julie-Su crimped her eyes for a better view of Atrava. "I would think you of all people would have figured that and gotten _that_ Emerald before all of the others! Even if you used the power of the Seven, the Controller would activate its power and neutralize your attack!"  
"Hmmm…" Atrava snickered after a moment. "Now, I haven't thought of _that_ possibility. But….why bother when you don't have to?"  
"Huh?"  
"You pathetic echidna!!" Atrava began to laugh heartily at Julie-Su. "Don't you think I would have thought of that already?! I know the Emeralds from years of study. If you think you can pull off a trick with me, you are dead wrong."  
"What are you talking about?!"  
"Dense female! What do you think?!……..There is no Controller."  
  
Julie-Su's eyes widened, the laser dropping to the floor. Locke's face fell just as quickly. Sailor Moon's hold on the tier, however, did not slip.  
  
"No….you liar!!" Julie-Su screeched. "YOU'RE LYING!!!"  
  
A moment passed with silence, save or the buzzing of emerald power.  
  
"You can call me anything." Atrava looked at Julie-Su with darkened eyes. "Call me evil, call me murderous, call me a monster, but never……NEVER…..**CALL ME A LIAR**!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
The energy blast from the six emeralds hit Julie-Su so hard it sent her through the wall, screaming until the impact cut her off.  
  
"JULIE-SU!!" Locke's shout was cut off by a similar blast.  
"HAMPH!!" Atrava snarled as he called up more emerald energy. "You will regret defying ME!!!!!!"  
"NOOOOOOOOO!!!"  
  
Atrava turned to see a brilliant flash of white light from Sailor Moon's chest. With a scream, the soldier threw down her tier and jumped at Atrava, teeth clenched.  
  
"**LEAVE THEM _ALONE_!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**"  
"USAGI!!!!!!!!!!" Locke's head flew up to see Sailor Moon jumping towards Atrava. "The force field!! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!"  
  
It happened in a split second. The smirk on Atrava's face told Sailor Moon plenty. She had also seen what happened to Locke, who had attempted to attack Atrava, only to be thrown back by the power of the Emeralds. He had the upper hand, the shield to protect him. But her desire to stop the madman was what made her do it. It was a desire she had always felt against her enemies, but it had never been as profound as this, because she knew that she was alone in this battle.  
_I won't let you stop me!_ Sailor Moon crystal flashed. _Nothing will stop me from stopping you, not even power! I can get through! I can do this!!_

****

*Skaaaaaaaa-SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN-BAAAAM!!!!!!*

  
  
The hit was completely unexpected, on the parts of both the attacker and the attacked. Sailor Moon saw her body fly past the Emerald barrier, could feel her body soar through the power that was supposed to be impenetrable, but yet felt like passing through nothing more than empty space. She looked to see Atrava's face change, from a look of haughtiness to a look of complete shock and horror, just as her elbow met the cartilage of his shoulder, her head into his cheek. She could feel bones cracking within both her and her adversary as the two fell to the floor, tumbling until they were stopped by the walls of the room.  
  
"Urrgh!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Sailor Moon tumbled off of him, moaning.  
  
"USAGI!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Julie-Su and Locke limped up to the podium, only to be thrown back once more.  
  
"Huh...?!?"  
  
Sailor Moon turned and gave a gasp. Atrava was back on his feet, warm blood coursing from his nose.  
  
"THIS IS NOT OVER!! I will not be thrwarted!!" He roared angrily. "You surpassed the power of Six. It will not be so when I have all Seven! This will end were it began. NOOOOW!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Suddenly, the bodies of the Emeralds and the gatekeeper shifted, and disappeared.  
  
"NOO!!!!!" Sailor Moon screamed.   
  
She jumped up as Atrava disappeared, but was stopped by Locke, who was barely able to control her kicking and screaming.  
  
"WAIT!! Not here!! He's gone." Locke grabbed Sailor Moon, turned her around and shook her. "Gone."  
"What happened?" Julie-Su put her hand onto the platform, then put her full body on it. "You went through the force field! How did you do that!!"  
"I.....I don't know...." Sailor Moon shakily replied.  
"Only the one with the Controller is capable of doing that." Julie-Su shook her head. "It wouldbe impossible for you to have done it...unless..."  
"The Earth's Emeralds must work differently somehow," Locke replied determinedly. "But that's not important now. We have to get to Atrava. And thank goodness he didn't sense that we still have the Heart of Hestia."  
"End it.......where it began....." Sailor Moon muttered, wiping her eyes. "But wha-"  
  
Her question was interrupted by a loud rumbling sound from the other side of the wall.  
  
"EARTHQUAKE?!?"  
"No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Julie-Su screamed. "YAAAAAAAAAH!!!:  
  
Taking out her laser, she shot out the wall, only to be blown back by exhaust. Blasts of smoke bellowed into the room at almost unimaginable speeds, sending everyone to the wall.  
  
"JULIE-SU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
"SAILOR MOON!!!!!!!!!!!"  
"LOCKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
**"LOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"**  
  
All three turned in time to see the tail end of a space shuttle as it bellowed more smoke. It shot up from in front of them, and, going through a slot in the side of the mountain, flew into the distant sky.  
  
"...........A space shuttle...."  
  
As the wind from the shuttle engines died down in the room they were in, the smoke cleared, and the three found themselves staring into the hole. What they saw was a gigantic launchpad created from the mountain, with one spacehip still preparing for launch.  
  
".........He's going to the moon......."  
"What?" Julie-Su looked at him.  
"The moon." Sailor Moon's voice crakced. "I know it. 'End it where it began'. For him, his supposed suffering started when my mother cursed him!"  
"Shit." Julie-Su looked at Locke. "And we've got no choice but to follow him in that other spaceship. Otherwise we won't be able to stop him."  
"Correct."  
  
At the sound of the new voice, Julie-Su turned to aim her gun at him, but froze when she saw the origin of the voice.  
  
"Huh...?!"  
"Moving isn't suggested." The click of the gun's barrel obviously pleased Vanguard. Though he was a black echidna now, Sailor Moon still recognized the cold eyes. "I may may have underestimated you last time, but this is different now. Atrava was expecting that you'd want to come. There seems to be a lot to talk about. Why don't we all get on board _my_ ship? I'm thinking that you'll want to now, won't you?" Then, motioning to them all, "Drop your weapons and give them to me. That is, if you don't wish for your body to turn cold under my watch."  
  
Sailor Moon looked at Locke. Locke looked back at her. For a moment, they simply stared at each other, one slightly confused, the other grim, while Julie-Su's laser fell to the ground with an angry bang.  
  
"Hey! _Lyoobovneks_!! I'm waiting!!"  
  
Turning back to Vanguard, Locke slowly dropped his staff and kicked it over to Vanguard. Sailor Moon quietly did the same, her head down.  
  
"Much better." After the weapos were collected, the gun motioned to the spaceship. "Now, let's go. Atrava doesn't want to wait for your Emerald."  
  
As the three were marched like lambs to the slaughterhouse, Sailor Moon looked up at the sky. In the distance, a tiny black dot spurted towards the full white moon.  
_You're right, Atrava. Right about only one thing._   
Sailor Moon could feel the determination bubble up in her. She looked over to Locke, her eyes blazing. His slightly sunken eyes looked up, widening when he saw her expression, and he quietly nodded. The spaceship began to loom over them as they walked closer.  
  
_This is _not_ over._  



	12. Spaceship

****

SOODNO NA MYESTO  
_(Spaceship)_

  
  
_There's no turning back now.  
  
It's just myself and my friends. What is left of them that I know are safe, at least. Nothing stands in the way of death for us except for that cold Vanguard. He herded us on like cattle. Strapped us in like the prisoners we are. And now he waits to kill us.  
The blue expanse of my world's sky darkens with each minute, and I can tell that dear Locke's resolve to avenge his son's death seems dimmed as well. Because in hearts, I see what people are, and I know that he has just about given up hope. He is slightly saddened, his long, hard, desperate quest to fight seemingly over. But whenever he looks at me, I can see something hopeful in him that I have seen in others I've met. I, of course, keep this to myself, lest Vanguard catch on.  
I see Julie-chan, her heart boiling over in anger. She hates the fate picked out for her by Locke's friend, whomever this man might be. But she is not yet sure what to do with it, and each passing minute makes her more uncertain as to how to enact revenge. I know, however, that someone will end Vanguard. And Atrava, if we're really lucky.  
I think of poor Naru-chan, whose own heart has probably stopped by now. She is carrying my secret to the grave, and I'm saddened that I couldn't save neither her nor Naritsu Ata. My friends, too. They are in grave danger. And so is everyone else on the planet.   
What do we do? If we fight, we might die. Vanguard is armed, and he took our weapons away from us. And if we don't fight, we will definitely die once we reach the moon. There's no choice that has a healthy amount of optimism when it come to our collective fates.  
  
I'm guessing we're just damned if we do, and damned if we don't. Besides, there's nothing left to lose now. It's all or nothing. _  
  
---------------------------  
  
"Quite sad."  
  
Vanguard tsked as looked over his shoulder, the three prisoners shackled to the wall. The shuttle vibrated and pitched with the turbulence.  
  
"Having fun back there?!" he shouted over the roar of the engine.  
  
None of the three replied. With a delighted laugh, Vanguard returned to the controls.  
  
"Eh well." Vanguard muttered. "It won't matter in a few minutes…seven minutes to be exact with this 398 engine..."  
  
Sailor Moon simply looked at Locke, whom looked up at Vanguard with anger.   
  
"Can you hear me?!?" she shouted.  
"What?!?" Locke shouted in reply.  
  
Sailor Moon repeated the question; however, it was mouthed, with no sound.  
  
"No" Locke slowly mouthed back.  
  
Julie-Su turned to see what they were doing.  
  
"What?!" She screamed.  
  
The other two looked at her. Though most of the sounds they made were drowned out by the engine, they could still feel the vibrations on their chains.  
  
"Mouth" Sailor Moon mouthed to Julie-Su.  
"Oh" Julie-Su mouthed back.  
"We must do something" Sailor Moon looked at Vanguard. "Now without his noticing"  
"But what"  
"I don't know" Sailor Moon replied.   
"Well as weird as it might sound" Julie-Su turned to Locke. "I think Locke might be our chance"  
"Me"  
"Yes he chained you in human form remember"  
"Oh yes"  
"But how will you change without him noticing you"  
"I'm afraid there might not be any way around it but knowing him" Locke gave a sigh. "He might not be looking that's our hgamtfi"  
"Our what" Sailor Moon's head began to swim from the vibrations on the ship and the sounds of the engine.  
"Hgamtfi"   
  
Locke's voice began to fade in her ears. Exhaustion from that past several days and the violent bumping began to excite Sailor Moon's gastric juices.  
_No…..No…._  
  
"Ihthth iorueoiijgkkkg ewitotu"  
  
Locke's mouthing became illegible to her. Without warning, Sailor Moon's eyes rolled up to the back of her head, and she could feel her last meal, the stroganoff, and the warm thick ooze of her own insides spill up from inside her in one single, elongated burning sensation.  
  
"Vanguard!" Locke's shout suddenly rang through her ears. "Help!"  
"Uuuuuugh…"  
  
Sailor Moon's head throbbed as everything became fuzzier. Forcing her eyes to stay open, she was so busy in her battle not to heave again that she didn't notice Vanguard's cursing as he saw what had happened. Nor did she see the burst of light that came from Locke, which shrank until there were two echidnas, one red, one black, simply facing each other, eyes filled with hatred, both ready to kill.  
  
"This is the end..."  
"Damn you!"  
  
The fight went all to quickly for Sailor Moon, whose eyes slowly closed on the fight that she would have beheld, but for Julie-Su it did not. The two combatant flew towards each other as best as they could in the atmosphere they were in, and Locke's fist plummeled into Vanguard's face. Vanguard spiralled into the wall, hitting several large instruments as he did.  
  
"Raaaah!!!"  
"_(I'll make this simple for you, brother.)_" Locke's words spat out like acid. "_(I have no love in my heart left for you. What you did to our people is just as unacceptable to the mold that grows and feeds like a parasite as it is to me, your flesh and blood.)_"  
  
Julie-Su's eyes widened at this admission from Locke.  
  
"_(Brother?!?)_"  
"_(And I have no love for you!)_" Vanguard spat as well, only what he spat was blood that still seeped from Locke's first blow. "_(You know that the guardianship and the Brotherhood were corrupt, unfit for people today, as well as I do!)_"  
"_(It's much better that what _your_ ilk have ever done for the people!)_"   
"_(Really? Was it good enough to save your son?)_"  
  
Locke's eyes widened at this, and the two stopped fighting. Stars whizzed by, and the moon became bigger in the window.  
  
"_(You...)_"  
"_(Did it save him from being a genetic freak? No, because it was you who caused it.)_" The words gave Vanguard great satisfaction. "_(You treated your son like a guinea pig. You only had an articicial emotion for him - if he didn't elate your name into history, then he was no good. Right? Tell me I'm wrong.)_"  
  
The words struck so hard that Vanguard felt them. With an angry roar, and with a savage strength that Julie-Su never saw, Locke grabbed Vanguard's dredlocks, nearly ripping them right out of his head, and shoved his face into Vanguard's.  
  
"_(DON'T **EVER** MIX ME UP WITH YOU!)_" he screamed. "_(EVERYTHING I DID, I DID FOR MY SON! I MAY HAVE SEEMED COLD, AND HEARTLESS, BUT ANSWER THIS!!! WOULD _YOU_ EVER HAVE WANTED _ANYTHING_ FOR A SON OF YOURS_**IF IT DIDN'T GIVE YOU MONEY**_?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?)_"  
  
Vanguard's eyes widened as Locke's hand slammed him into the wall so hard, it completely dented the controls that were on it. With another angry roar, Locke then picked the black echidna up and threw him into the dashboard of the cockpit, right into the controls.   
  
"_(Locke!!!)_"  
  
A buzzer suddenly bleeped as Locke jumped to the controls of the ship.   
  
WARNING! was the sign he met. SYSTEM FAILURE. OVERRIDE FAILED. DOS PROMPTORS DESTROYED. EMERGENCY LAND GEAR FAILING....  
  
"_(Dammit!)_" Locke jumped into the pilot seat. He looked up to see the moon fill up the entire view of the cockpit. "_(Julie-Su, hang on back there! I'm going to try to land this thing without killing us!!)_"  
  
Locke grabbed onto the wheel, and jammed his foot onto the pedal. Nothing happened. As quick as he could, he jumped down to the floor, staring at the wires that connected the pedal to the system. The sound of the engine grew louder as they approached the atmosphere of the moon.  
  
"_(What....)_"  
"_(Locke?!?!?!?_)" Julie-Su shouted over the noise. "_(Locke!! Is everything all right?!?!)_"  
  
Suddenly, the ship was seized by atmospheric turbulence, and a large wave rolled under the ship. Locke's head slammed into the pedal wires. The jolts of energy shocked him so quickly he didn't even have time to scream as he instantly slumped, floating in the air.  
  
"_(Locke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1)_"   
  
Julie-Su looked over as best as she could through the binds, but she could see nothing of Locke. Suddenly, her eyes caught a small green light on the surface below. The egine began to roar even louder as the ship began to almost bounce as it entered.  
  
"_(......................A tower........................)_"  
  
Julie-Su's fascination was suddenly overridden by a sudden burst of speed. The shuttle was caught by the Moon's atmosphere, and though the gravity was much less than on Earth, the shuttle was in a tail spin, going faster than ever before.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"   
  
Julie-Su's screams were suddenly cut out by the sound of her eardrums exploding. Her mind reeled from the sensation, the impact of her sudden loss of hearing. The pressure, and the sound, was no longer there, and she saw Locke's body floating, and she saw Vanguard's floating, and the tower and the green light and then and the surface and her mind and body slowly succombing to the inevitable and-

****

*THOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  
OOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

  
But first, her mother. Then, Knuckles, smiling at her. Then, white.  
  
-------------------  
  
_Nothing. Then, a sound. Drip. Drip. Like water.  
Locke's eyes open up.  
  
"What is this....."  
  
He lays on the floor, looking up. Its himself. The Locke body. Blood.  
  
"No..."  
  
Then suddenly it's her he sees. Smiling.  
  
"Locke........"  
  
The beautiful angel from before. The one that saved him. Suddenly disintegrates...  
  
"It can't be over....."  
  
...Disintegrates into Usagi. Just as beautiful. One and the same. Angel Usagi. Locke sees this. Then there is the glowing Usagi body in chains in tha back. But how?  
Then, a voice.  
  
"The Servers are the Seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The Controller serves to unify the Chaos." Angel Usagi's head lifts up. "You remember, don't you?"  
"Usagi?"  
"Power that is enriched by the heart. Hope. Isn't this power enriched by hope, Locke?"   
  
Suddenly, light. Locke floats up. Descends on the Locke body..._  
  
-------------------  
  
Locke's eyes jumped open.  
He was alive again.  
  
".......................uugh......"  
  
Feeling disoriented, he looked around woozily before slowly getting up. Vanguard's body was gone, though blood still remained on the seat where he had been. Looking around, yhis eyes suddenly spotted the outside world from the cockpit.  
_My.......God......_  
  
In the distance, a green light blinked from a large, black, seemingly desecrated tower. Ruins surrounded it like a death camp.  
  
"U.....sagi.......J.....Julie-Su......" With a gasp, he turned around. "We made it....we-"  
  
His elation of surviving froze when he saw Julie-Su's place in the chains was vacant. She was gone. The chains were unlocked.  
_Vanguard._. Locke's teeth clenched as he shuddered in anger. _He took her. He's got her. He-_  
  
"Huh...................."  
  
Locke turned to see the origin of the voice. As he did, he suddenly felt himself turning back into a human the instant his eyes met the golden hair.   
_Of course...._ he suddenly realized. _The Silver Crystal._  
The light glow around Sailor Moon slowly dissipated as her eyes slowly opened. Locke slowly and methodically unchained Sailor Moon, and she collapsed into his arms.  
  
"Locke!!" she gasped.  
"Usagi…."  
  
Suddenly, at the sight of one another, alive, the two began to kiss. Neither of them really expected it, but somehow, they were deeply locked in, as if they had really been lovers. Sailor Moon's arms slowly folded around Locke's neck.   
_This…._ Sailor Moon's thoughts went to Mamoru. _…isn't right…..but….it's as if….I'm really kissing Mamo-chan. Oh, Mamo-chan, forgive me, wherever you are…._  
Finally, the two had to force themselves away from each other.  
  
"I'm….sorry….."  
"No, no, that was….my fault…."  
"Vanguard's got Julie-Su." Locke gave a huff. His face was beet red. "We have to go. I'll get Vanguard, and you come in after me-"  
"Wait! But what about the Emerald?"  
"The Emerald….and our weapons...."  
  
Locke turned around and saw the Heart of Hestia, piled inside a pag wit his staff, Sailor Moon's tier and Julie-Su's laser.  
  
"He didn't get it...."  
  
Locke quickly picked it up from the floor.  
  
"We might have something with this Emerald in our possession. But….we shouldn't reveal that we have it to Atrava or Vanguard yet. Or it's all over."  
"Right." Sailor Moon nodded.  
"……Sailor Moon….." Locke stopped at the hook of the ship's door.   
"Huh?"  
"…………Promise me something."  
  
Sailor Moon's eyes widened.  
  
"If I die, you must protect the Emeralds."  
"Protect them….." _Are you a fool? He is your friend! And….you just kissed him…_ "I promise."  
  
With a smile and a nod, Locke disappeared from the ship.  
_Follow him…._ Sailor Moon looked out the window, watching as he ran, disappearing over the horizon. _Just wait….then follow…._  
  
------------------------  
  
The tower had been closer than he thought.  
  
"VANGUARD!!" Locke's angry voice permeated through the room "SHOW YOURSELF!!"  
  
There was no reply as Locke walked. The green glow of the the six Emeralds' was nowhere to be found.  
  
"VANGUARD!!"  
"Uraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!"  
  
The agonized scream caused Locke to take out his staff. His revulsion became even more so as Vanguard's body suddenly fell from out of nowhere, plopping right in front of Locke.  
  
"Locke!!!!"  
  
Sailor Moon ran into the tower.  
  
"This place....was used by my mother to purify the Earth during Metallia's battle!"  
"Get back!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Locke's echidna instincts served him well. Suddenly, the tower darkened as Locke jumped away from Vanguard's body.  
  
"Sailor Moon." Locke turned to the girl as he landed. "We must be careful now."  
  
Sailor Moon nodded as six green lights descended onto the center pillar of the room.  
  
"The Chaos Emeralds." Locke grit his teeth. "Dammit."  
  
Suddenly, the earth shone into the room, and the room lit up again, only this time everything was green. A shadow appeared on top of the pillar, and it jumped onto Vanguard's back. A loud crack could be heard in the room. Then, the shadow took out something that looked like a sword and hacked the blade mercilessly into Vanguard's neck.  
  
"Jesus…." Locke could feel his heart pound furiously.  
  
Standing on top of Vanguard's dead and mutilated body was Atrava, who was snickering as he silently rubbed his knuckles.  
  
"You…."  
"Heh…if it isn't the little moon princess." Atrava turned from Sailor Moon to Locke. "And the failed guardian. Such a combination to come all the way to my home on the moon. And….such a pleasure. Forgive the mess…" Atrava's foot pressed on what little neck was still attached to Vanguard's body. "I wasn't expecting you in this condition."  
"We don't want your tasteless comments!!" Sailor Moon shouted. "Where are my friends?!"  
"They're right here."  
  
The green lights flashed again, and the two found themselves in the center of several emerald crucifixes, each about twenty feet high. Sailor Moon gasped as she looked up to see all of her friends, Mamoru, and Julie-Su.  
  
"No!!!" She dropped to her knees.  
"Yes." Atrava's face triumphantly glowed. "All of your pitiful friends, they thought they could defy me. But I have six of seven. They stood no chance. And now…" Atava's eyes flashed. "It's your turn to join them."  
  
Suddenly, a green crucifix leaped up from under Sailor Moon. Quick as lightning, she flipped over the crucifix and landed on top of it, balancing herself as best as she could.  
_Can't let him get to me._ Sailor Moon huffed. _Almost was creamed that time!_  
  
"Not bad, Serenity." The gatekeeper chuckled. "It looks like the little princess has gotten better since I last saw her. You may have broken the barrier, but what chance do you really stand against six of seven?"  
"You're about to see, Atrava!" Sailor Moon pointed towards him. "I may seem like nothing more than a little princess, but in reality, I am a sailor soldier! And I resonate with the light of love, truth and justice. A power that not even your pitiful six of seven can compare to!!"  
  
A look of anger passed over Atrava. He gave a snap of his hands.  
  
"Do you really think you can defeat me in that way?" he snarled. "Then you truly have never confronted the power of the Chaos Emeralds!"  
  
A green laser shot out from Atrava's hands, barreling towards Sailor Moon. With a whoop, Sailor jumped over it and fell to the floor.   
  
"You'll have to do better than that!" she shouted as she fell.  
"Very well." Atrava's eyes flashed. "As you wish."  
  
The ground which was to cushion Sailor Moon's fall suddenly flashed, and emerald green vines lashed out from the light, surrounding Sailor Moon and stopping her fall.  
  
"What?!?" Sailor Moon gasped as the vines grabbed her arms and legs.  
"I'm not finished with you yet!" Atrava laughed. "Now you will see what I can do!!"  
  
With a powerful shove, the vines pinned Sailor Moon to the crucifix. A flicker came from one of the leaves, and in an instant Sailor Moon was electrocuted by bolts of powerful electricity.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed.  
"SAILOR MOON!!! NOOO!!!!" Locke shouted as he jumped up to save her. He was deflected by the electricity and thrown to the ground.   
"LOOOOOCCCKE!!!!!!!!!"  
  
The eternal locket on Sailor Moon's winged bow suddenly shattered under the pressure from the Emerald energy, and her sailor suit turned into a mess of ribbons. Usagi's eyes rolled up to the back of her head as she began to succumb to the power.  
  
"USAGI!!!!!!"   
  
Locke suddenly jumped back up and leaped up on the pillar. With an angry roar, he grabbed his staff and knocked the shocked Atrava in the face, sending him off of the pillar.  
  
"Urrraaaaaaah!!!!"  
  
With a growl, Atrava stopped himself in mid-air. He glared up at Locke, who swung his staff up and pointed it at Atrava.  
  
"You keep forgetting, I have the power to harness the Emeralds as well, gatekeeper." Locke went into a fighting stance.   
"Of course." Atrava rubbed his cheek. "How could I have forgotten. Silly me. And of course you would risk yourself for your girlfriend."  
  
Usagi came to herself, hanging on the crucifix, and spotted Locke on top of the pillar, looking down at Atrava.  
  
"I never said I had a girlfriend." Locke growled. "And you keep Usagi out of this. It was me you wanted to begin with. So let's go. You and me."  
"Locke, Locke." Atrava snickered. "You are more than willing to hide your true feelings from the lovely girl you just tried to save, aren't you? That my attacking her is a personal thing to you. Admit it; you have no more love for Lara-Le, there is no Lara-Le for you now, just this girl!! And you know as well as I that she is in far too deep for me to let her off so easily."  
  
Usagi's eyes grew wide at this. Locke looked over at her, and his eyes grew wide when he saw that she was awake. His face turned completely red, and he rubbed his temple as he began to sweat.  
  
"Heheh." Atrava's next laugh turned Locke's attention from the beautiful girl to his enemy. "I am a sporting man. I see a great amount of potential with you. You could always join me….forego your death….you can return home….if you give me the last Emerald. Forget the girl; she is the past ruler of Earth, while I my way the future!"  
"Never." Locke's answer was blunt.  
"What if I spared her life?" Atrava whisked his hand towards Usagi. "Gave her to you as an added bonus for joining me? Then you could be with your dearly beloved forever."  
  
Locke gave a shocked grunt, then turned his head down. Usagi looked at Locke as he turned back to her, his eyes showing the difficulty he was having with the decision. He silently studied her face, looking for a sign and obviously not finding one. The two stared at each other for several moments, simply looking at each other.  
_Locke….Do what you know is right,_ Usagi silently pleaded. _Please! Don't give him the last Emerald. I know now that you love me; all those times you saved me, you could have left me for dead, but you didn't because of your feelings for me. But don't throw everything away because of me!!_  
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Locke turned to Atrava with a determined look.  
  
"Yes, it's true," he slowly said. "I do love her. I felt love for her the first time I laid eyes on her. I never thought I could find a person to change me in the way that she did. She taught me my mistakes, and taught me how to deal with them."  
  
A look of triumph flashed on Atrava's face as Locke's words came out.  
  
"Even though she can never be mine to have, I would do anything for her." Locke grasped his staff. "And I know that the choice I make now is the right thing. Not just because it is for her, however. Because I am doing it for her…and all of the people of Earth."  
  
Without warning, Locke jumped off of the pillar and flipped his staff over, revealing the knife at the end. With a shout of total surprise and a completely pale face, Atrava threw up his hands to stop the blow from meeting his neck.  
  
"Locke!!!" Usagi's happy face turned to one of horror as she noticed a green light coming from the ceiling. "WATCH OUT!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
The notice came too late for Locke, who was suddenly knocked to the ground with crude force by the green light. Atrava brought his hands down in confusion to look down at Locke.  
  
"Well, well," Atrava's face became evil once more. "It looks like my reinforcement is here."  
  
The green light floated up to Atrava, growing and mutating as it did.   
  
"Locke." Locke looked up at the gatekeeper. "I don't suppose you have met my most trusted lieutenant. Yet I believe you know him….very well."  
  
The green light finally flickered and disappeared, revealing a small green creature to the occupants of the room. Its green eyes looked over at Usagi with a cold glare. Usagi gasped as she recognized the animal that had materialized.  
  
"You!!! An echidna?!?"  
  
Locke looked up at the green echidna, and all color drained from his face.  
  
"Locke," Atrava smiled as he put his arm around the newcomer. "I would like you to meet your challenger. His name is Knuckles."  



	13. Knuckles

****

SOOSTAV  
_(Knuckles)_

  
  
The green echidna folded his arms as he looked down at Locke in the same way that one looked at a disobedient dog. Usagi stared at the echidna as she struggled to free herself from her confines.  
_That monster….from Tokyo!!!!_ she thought frantically as she looked back forth from him and Locke. _I remember him now. I can see the scar from where Uranus scratched him. And he looks stronger than ever. I don't like this. He…was thrown down without even being touched. Locke!!! I hope you are not going to die because of me…._  
  
"To be sure, Locke," Atrava continued, "that I got what I asked for, I decided to ask around for a little bit of help. Naturally, when I found this charming boy, I couldn't resist putting him on my payroll. It doesn't hurt that he himself is….a living Chaos Emerald, in essence…you see, Knuckles has been of good use to me in certain situations."  
  
Locke stood up, his hands clenched in a form of anger Usagi had never seen come from him.  
  
"Why don't we wager on the outcome of a fight with you and this boy?" Atrava floated up onto the pillar once more. With a flick of his wrist a throne appeared in the middle of the six emeralds. "The fate of the Earth is the prize. The Chaos Emeralds, all seven of them, the bonus consolation." He sat down. "Winner take all. What do you say?"  
"What happens," Locke reluctantly asked, "If _Knuckles_ is to win?"  
"If Knuckles wins…." Atrava folded his legs and stretched. "I win, and you will give me the location of the last Chaos Emerald, and submit your life to me to do as I please with it. Your girlfriend over there will also experience a similar fate."  
  
Usagi looked at Knuckles, then at Locke. For some odd reason, she noticed a strange similarity between the two, even though Locke was in human form and Knuckles was green. It was something that she could not quite point out, but it was there.  
  
"Very well." Locke knew that there was no way out of the invitation. "I accept your challenge. If I win, you will leave and never return to this planet on pain of death. And all of the Emeralds belong to _me_."  
"Fair enough!" Atrava laughed. "Then why don't we begin our little charade. Knuckles!"  
  
The green echidna leaped up onto the pillar next to the throne. Locke, in return, flipped backwards until he could see the top of the echidna. Without another word he threw off his top cloak, then his hat, then his kimono belt, and finally his jacket.   
  
"Locke…."  
  
Locke looked up at Usagi. There was a determined look on his face, but he smiled when he looked at Usagi.  
  
"Don't worry about me, Usagi." With a quick movement his dreadlocks were loosened from the rubber band that had held them together. "Just remember our promise."  
"Promise…"  
  
Locke's head snapped back around just in time to see Knuckles as he slammed himself to the ground. Locke had been the intended target, but the former guardian dodged it, causing Knuckles to fall face first into the floor. Jamming his staff into the ground, he then proceeded to jump up onto the crucifix holding Sailor Mars.  
  
"Knuckles!!" Atrava screamed. "Don't just stand there!! Kill him!!"  
  
Quick as lightning, Knuckles jumped out of the hole and leaped onto the crucifix. His right fist slammed into Locke's stomach, throwing him off of the crucifix. He recovered before reaching the bottom, and he saved his head from cracking open by landing on his hands. He immediately returned the punch as Knuckles attempted to descend upon him again by giving Knuckles a roundhouse to the face.  
_They're almost even._ Usagi's mind could still picture Haruka falling at the feet of the monster. _Locke seems to be the only one who can challenge him._  
As the two jumped and hit each other, Locke seized an opportunity to grab his staff and block a headbutt. As the two got close enough to touch their foreheads, Usagi heard Locke muttering Mobian to the echidna. Though she could still not understand it, she could still hear the subtle passionate plea that it seemed to imply.  
  
"(What have you done, Knuckles?)" Locke struggled to keep Knuckles off of him. "(How could you sell yourself to this devil?! Do you even know who he is?)"  
"(He is the one who discovered me, father.)" Knuckles grabbed the staff, though he was unable to get it from him. "(I have become the chosen one, the creator of the new Earth, with my power!)"  
"(Are you a fool, Knuckles?!)" Locke couldn't believe his ears. "(He is using you to destroy a planet that has nothing to threaten him!)"  
"(Ha. Of course you wouldn't understand.)" Knuckles snorted. "(You, the one who abandoned me and then killed everyone by bringing those humans to the island! I saw it; I was blinded by allegiance but Atrava helped me to understand. You are one to talk about idiocy! I am just doing the souls who died under your care the favor they never got to do!!)"  
  
Locke's hands loosened their grip on the staff in shock. Suddenly, he was thrown by an unknown force to the wall. With a crackle of pure Emerald energy, the staff disintegrated in Knuckles' hands.  
  
"LOCKE!!!!!!" Usagi screamed.  
"Heheh." Atrava was enjoying the show as he watched.  
"(You have been tricked.)" Locke's face was filled with complete shock. "(Can't you see that! He has put you under a spell. Knuckles….I _did_ abandon you, but I didn't do it because I didn't care. When I _did_ leave you, I did it because I thought I was doing the right thing. That you would understand that it was for your good that I did it. But I realize that I was wrong. But it's too late to change the past. I wanted to be there for the present, but you did not seem to need me anymore. I tried, and I failed. I see that now… Realize that even though I'm a failure, it was because I wanted to succeed)" Locke's tone became desperate. "_(_Please_, Knuckles. Listen to me! Wake up, and realize this too!)_"  
  
Suddenly, an black emerald-tipped staff was thrown in front of Locke.  
  
"Atrava…?" Locke looked up at the gatekeeper.  
"Use it, old man." Atrava sat back in his throne. "My syphon staff. Created by my knowledge. It would help you greatly against this powerful adversary. Besides, I have heard that you echidnas are excellent in the art of the Chaos Emeralds and syphons. I _would_ give you a sword," and as he said this, his hand whisked over in the direction of Vanguard's body, "but as you can see, it's yet to be cleaned."  
  
Locke's face darkened as his glance varied from Atrava to Knuckles. Usagi could see him as he clenched his fists to the point where his palms began to bleed.  
  
"What's the matter, Locke?" Atrava began to chuckle. "You don't know how to use a syphon? I figured you would, though. Or…..do you still have some kind of problem with killing your son?"  
  
Usagi's eyes widened as she heard this. _His…son? Knuckles is….Locke's son?!? The child he left!! The Guardian Savior!! _This_ is him?!?_  
  
"Hehehehee." Atrava's laugh made her blood cold. "Don't be stupid, guardian. The son has no remorse to regret killing the father."  
  
With a shout, Knuckles dashed at Locke, his green eyes intent on shredding his father into a million pieces with his bare hands. Locke made no move to stop him. Instead, his head went down.  
  
"Locke!!!" Usagi screamed at the top of his lungs. "You've got to fight!!!"  
"Heheheheheh…"  
  
Usagi looked up at Atrava. It was obvious that he was enjoying it, the fact that Locke wasn't going to fight Knuckles. It made her hair stand on end, and she shut her eyes tightly for a moment.  
  
"Sorry, Dad." Knuckles snickered. "Looks like you lose."  
  
_No…….nooo………_ she could feel the scream coming on, and nothing was going to stop it. She opened her eyes with dispair.  
It was at that moment that Locke turned to Usagi. The look of hopelessness on his face stunned her. And there were tears in his eyes.  
_I'm sorry, Usagi. This is the one person I cannot fight. How can I inflict more injury to him, after what I did already…?_  
Usagi looked at his face, and her heart froze.  
  
-----------------------  
  
_The dripping of blood. The taste of fear. Usagi had watched as Locke was pummeled with punches by Knuckles. But it was not real. It was a dream. It had to be a dream. It could not be real.  
  
"I will not let it happen." Usagi had said to herself after the night she had dream. "No matter what happens, I won't let you die, Locke!!"  
"Usagi."  
  
Locke's head went down as she said it. It cocked to one side as he spoke.  
  
"If I must die, I must die. But you must promise me something as well."  
"What?"  
"You must promise me that you will protect the Emeralds if I die."  
  
The flashback dissipated to nothing, just Usagi holding herself in her chair. Everything around her was black as she shuddered.  
  
"Protect the Emeralds….become the guardian of them….because their power is unparalleled. Because I promised." Usagi rubbed her eyes. "But does it allow me to stand and watch as a man is killed? Even if he believes that there is no future for him? Why can't….why can't he just start over? Why must he be defeated even before he fights?"  
"What are you suggesting?"  
  
Usagi suddenly whirled around to confront the owner of the voice that suddenly permeated into the dark. However, she only found a small beam of light trickling through the blackness.  
  
"Are you suggesting that Locke forfeit himself?" The voice continued. "His guardianship, his family, his soul, to a force that he has never known, the force of normalcy, a force that you yourself only recently gave up?"  
  
Usagi could herald no reply. She found that she had no voice to reply to the sound.   
  
"But what about those who fought before him?" the voice continued. "Are you suggesting that the echidnas and the humans who fought before him - the ones who began the tradition on both planets - are you saying that they were wrong? They gave their lives up to fight for a cause they felt was right - the protection of the Emeralds. It is only natural that the guardianship comes back to Locke in full circle - the same duty that gave him life is the same that will give him death. Are you saying that you want to stop the cycle? That you would abolish the guardians? Or perhaps you wish to abolish the Emeralds altogether, and begin anew?"  
"If abolishing the Emeralds will stop the killing," Usagi sat up in her chair, "if it will save Locke and Knuckles, and Earth, I would do it in an instant! It's not fair that normal people whose destinies do not remotely relate to the sailor soldiers must give their entire lives up just to hide something they know can never truly be hidden! It's caused to much heartbreak. There must be a way."  
"But you know it is not that easy."  
  
A misty yellow figure suddenly floated from the light. As it came down to the ground, it became redder as the light diminished. Usagi's eyes grew wide.  
  
"You are…."  
  
The figure finally touched ground. It was a red echidna, just like Locke as he had been in the hotel. However, he wore a dark cloak, a pair of wings adorned his back, and a halo was around his head.  
  
"Destroying the Emeralds might not stop the cycle, Usagi," the echidna softly said. "It might only make it worse then before. But, you are right, the Emeralds cannot be hidden forever. There must be an equilibrium of power if there is ever to be peace."  
"I want to help!" Usagi stood up. "I want to create that equilibrium, so that people may have a chance to have real peace and hope!"  
"Now, there is a way to do that. We must find a Controller."   
"But Atrava said-"  
"What he wanted you to hear. There must be a Controller, because no emerald can exist without it. But that, that must be later. Now….."  
  
The echidna walked over to Usagi and quietly sat her back down. He leaned over and began to whisper in her ear.  
  
"Always remember this: it's the left you will have to watch out for."_  
  
---------------------  
  
Usagi's eyes jerked open. She saw Locke as Knuckles charged him.   
  
"NO!!!!" With a sudden burst of energy, Usagi's hands clenched in their restraints. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
With a strength that wasn't human, she ripped her hands out of the shackles and fell to the ground below. With a speed and frenzy she never knew she possessed, Usagi charged as hard as she could at the green echidna. With a loud scream she could feel her shoulder crunch as she rammed Knuckles, throwing out of Locke's path.  
  
"Nnnngh!!!!"  
"Usagi!!!!"   
  
Locke started to run towards her, but stopped. He stared at her as she stood back up. The ribbons rematerialized into the sailor suit, and she was Sailor Moon again. But Locke noticed that her wings had changed - the feathers seemed plucked off like a dead bird's - and that the locket had not mended.  
  
"Usagi…..you are Usagi, aren't you?"  
  
Sailor Moon turned to Locke, her face confused. She held her shoulder as it screamed in pain from the punch.  
  
"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I-"  
"HALT!!"  
  
Suddenly, a barricade of emerald energy surrounded Locke, separating him from Sailor Moon. Slamming his hand on his throne, Atrava glared down.  
  
"This is one-on-one, Sailor Moon." The barricade around Locke flew up to the ceiling, hanging over the room. "I do not prefer two people ganging up on my trusted warrior. Knuckles, destroy her, than I'll give Locke back to you!!"  
"YAAAAH!!!!!!!!"  
  
Knuckles flipped off of his back and threw a punch at the sailor. With a quick movement, Sailor Moon leaped up into the air, landing on Knuckles' arm before flipping back onto the ground.  
  
"Dammit!!" Knuckles screamed. "Hold still, stupid girl!!"  
  
Knuckles grabbed the staff and stabbed at Sailor Moon, only to have her dodge each of his attacks with a grace and agility never seen before from her. With a bounce she jumped up onto one of the crucifixes and scratched her head.  
  
_Woah. Where did that come from?!  
I can answer that question, Sailor Moon._ The voice of the mysterious echidna suddenly filled her head. _It is coming from me.  
Huh?! You?!  
That is correct._   
  
Knuckles leaped up onto the crucifix and swiped at Sailor Moon's head. Once again, she dodged, and jumped off of the crucifix, floating on the way down.  
  
_We have never been properly introduced, Sailor Moon,_ the voice continued. _My name is Tobor.  
Tobor!!_ The name somehow rang a very loud bell in Sailor Moon's head as she landed softly on the ground.   
_I am the relative whose death prompted Locke's son….Knuckles….to join the dark side._  
  
"Sailor Moon!!" Locke shouted through the barricade. "The staff!! Watch out for it!!"  
  
Sailor Moon saw it, and leaped onto another platform above to dodge it. She gave a few quick gasps to clear her mind.   
_What was it that Tobor said?_ she though as she quietly closed her eyes. _Something about Knuckles favoring his left._  
With an angry shout, Knuckles threw a left punch at her. As quick as she could she dodged it, allowing him to hit the wall. She returned with another kick, which caused the staff to spiral out of his hands.  
  
"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!"  
  
_I can feel him..._ Sailor Moon's eyes opened. _I can feel what happened._  
  
Suddenly, her arms opened up, and the Silver Crystal reacted, glowing brightly.   
  
"THIS IS THE END OF THIS!!"  
  
Knuckles glowed, and with an angry yell charged at Sailor Moon as she began to power up.  
  
"I'll stop you!!" Teeth clenched, he hurtled towards the sailor. "I'll put an end to your crystal and its power!!!!!!!"  
  
_Be careful, Sailor Moon!_ Tobor's voice spoke warningly. _In his rage, it might not work!  
I must....try......_  
  
***KA-POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!!***  
  
Knuckles' fist plowed through the barrier of the crystal, and his hand grabbed the gem. The glow began fade under Knuckles' hand.  
  
"USAGI!!!!" Locke screamed. 

"Please…..  
  
The instant the glow of the gem faded completely, however, Knuckles' hand suddenly turned white. The white crept over his entire body, and his hand ripped off of the crystal. He began to scream as his entire body turned white.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
"Remember!" Sailor Moon took out the crystal and held it out. "We're not the enemy! Awaken! Real son of Locke! You've been tricked!!!!"

"Let…..let me go!!!" Knuckles' eyes became wild. "N-no….."  
  
A blast of pure energy then crackled from the crystal, blinding Atrava and Locke from seeing the two combatants.  
  
"Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Atrava covered his eyes as he glared. His teeth clenched down until his tongue bled. "Princess!! Overriding his power!!!!! How can this be!?!?!?!?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"  



	14. Planet of White

****

BELVYAY NA PLANETA  
_(Planet of White)_

  
  
_"Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!"  
  
The pain was unbearable. All he could see was blood, all of the blood from his body, draining onto the spikes. It was like a death, a terrible, painful death that no man should have. Yet death was something he could never have.  
  
"Right! Enough."  
  
The iron maiden suddenly stopped spinning. With a crooked smile, the lone human figure opened it up. The body of the echidna was impaled through the side with one of the more promiscuous spikes.  
  
"Do you surrender?"  
"Never." the green echidna spat blood as he shouted. "I won't give up!! Never!"  
"Very well. Your choice, boy. To the next chamber!!"  
  
The human placidly dragged the green echidna off of the spike and into another door. It slammed shut, and all at once, acid began to pour in, burning off the echidna's skin.  
  
"OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!  
"Hah!" The man outside spat. "Does it hurt? We will do it forever and ever until you consent to us, guardian! After all, why keep the guilt of your father's deeds onto your shoulders, where they never belonged in the first place? They should be upon your father, the spineless coward."  
"Guardian...."  
  
The name had meant something before, but it was lost on the creature now. All he knew of was pain. When he blocked out the pain, or tried to, it simply kept coming. It slowly numbed all other memories from his mind, until all there was were the bullets. The acid. The gas. And now, the iron maiden and the radiation sickness. This was his father's fault, for when the boy screamed out to him, he did not come.  
But he couldn't comfort in eminent death. He had something they wanted - power. He could be gauged, impaled, shot, anything, but he couldn't die. His mind was gone, banished, perhaps never to return but the flesh refused to give out.  
  
"Uuugh...."  
"Knuckles!"  
  
The name, though it didn't seem familiar, made the green echidna turn around and face the origin of the voice.  
  
"..........................Tobor?"  
  
The name came from nowhere, from a place he had forgotten from the endless pain and suffering he went through. But the injured echidna knew that this was Tobor. Somehow.  
  
"How did..."  
"Knuckles...." The name again. "Wake up. You've been tricked."  
"Tricked..."  
"Your father. You. Everything is in danger."  
  
Something began to stir within the green echidna's mind. A man.  
  
".......Tricked....he tricked me......." Truth began to stir within him, the longer he stared at the creature before him. "That…….human….."  
"......yes....."  
"....and.....teased me............." The green echidna began to realize. "My family...........gone......it was _him_, not dad...."  
"He broke you." The green echidna's mind suddenly began to flood with memories. "When you were at the breaking point, he told you. It was your father. But it wasn't. It was him. Papu Atrava."  
  
The chamber disappeared, and there was nothing there but him, Papu Atrava, the man who did it all. And black.  
  
"...No...." Suddenly, the green echidna shuddered from the weight of the memories. "......make it stop......."  
"Knuckles.....Knuckles?! Are you-" _

Tobor's voice suddenly blinked out from the blackness. The green echidna's eyes widened in pain, all the memories he had conflicting and throwing his entire being into conflict, and he screamed. A burst of white light suddenly broke into the blackness.  
  
"STOP!!!!!!!!!!!! MAKE THIS STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" He screamed. "MAKE IT STOP **NOOOOOW**!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
---------------------------  
  
Sailor Moon's head nodded.  
  
"Silver Moon Crystal Power!!!!!!! **KISS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**"  
  
The tier in hand, the seemingly long forgotten attack, combined with the syphon staff she now possessed, barreled, in different colors, towards the white echidna.  
  
"**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**"  
  
The attack hit Knuckles head on, and he screamed. Mist began to come off of him like a stove.  
  
"**_BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_**"  
  
The white was drained from his body. Once again green, the echidna collapsed amid the feathers as it rolled out towards the extended walls of the room.  
  
"KNUCKLES!!!"  
  
The energy from the attack spread out, releasing Locke from his cage. He landed on both feet as he ran over to Knuckles.  
  
"Knuckles!!!!!!"  
  
As the energy wave rolled over the crucifixes, everyone's eyes slowly opened.  
  
"Sailor Moon!!"  
"Everyone!!"  
  
The crucifixes disappeared, and everyone trapped in them fell down to the ground. Julie-Su saw Knuckles, and, upon reaching him, she quickly shifted his body.  
  
"Knuckles. Is it you?"  
  
Knuckles' eyes slowly opened. The green tint from his body disappeared, and he became red again.  
  
"I think so…" He looked around and saw himself surrounded by humans. "Where am I?"  
"On Earth."  
  
Knuckles looked over at the origin of the voice, and found himself staring at a scratched-up human with long red dreadlocks.  
  
"Who are….Dad?!"  
"Yes."  
  
Locke's figure glowed, shrinking until it was an echidna silhouette. The light disappeared, and he was in his original form.  
  
"I don't believe it."  
"…….Well, this is touching."  
  
Everyone turned over to Atrava, whose eyes were flashing.  
  
"Hand over the Emerald, Locke." Atrava held out his hand. "I won."  
"Ha. We defeated your champion." Locke pointed to him. "I suggest you leave before these young girls come after you."  
"It looks like I didn't specify the rules clear enough for you, echidna." Atrava put his hand up to the ceiling. "I said _you_ had to defeat him. You….and no one else. You violated the rules. Your Emerald belongs to me."  
  
Everyone gasped.  
  
"What?!" Locke couldn't believe his ears.   
"You _are_ a cheap old man, aren't you?!" Julie-Su shouted. "You just twisted the wording so that you'll win either way!!"  
"So?" Atrava laughed. "It doesn't matter anymore!!"  
  
The six Emeralds on the pillar glowed brightly. From the corner, Locke's pack vibrated violently. The fabric ripped apart, and the seventh Emerald popped out.  
  
"NO!!!" Sailor Moon screamed. "You can't do this!!"  
"And why not, little princess!!" Atrava laughed even more. "It's my right! As the gatekeeper of your hateful mother, being cursed with immortality, I _will_ have my revenge! To you, and society that has created the need for you and your friends….DEATH!!!!"  
  
The seventh Emerald hovered into the middle, and a burst of green light burst forth into the tower, blinding everyone.  
  
"AAAAAAH!!!!!!" Everyone fell down to the ground.  
"This is the end!!!" Atrava shouted. "Earth Emeralds!! Agents of death!!! Grant me the ultimate power to fulfill my greatest wish, and destroy the people of earth and my enemies!!!!!!!!!! **HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**"  
  
As a ripple of power burst from the seven Emeralds, Sailor Saturn looked up to see that the ripple was resonating onto the planet Earth, as did each subsequent ripple.  
  
"The Earth….It is turning green!!"  
"**YES!!!!**" Atrava screamed in the circle. "The final punishment of the people of Earth!!! A slow, painful death under the clouds of cold Emerald energy. Its infinite power is unmatched. There is no neutralizing Controller to slow and stop the ebbing of the Emeralds' strength! First this Earth, then this moon, and my revenge will be complete!!!! The Emeralds' power will explode recklessly and consume this world, and nothing can be done to stop it!! HAHAHAHA!!!"  
"NO!!!!"  
  
Sailor Moon jumped up and took out her tier. She pointed it angrily at Atrava.  
  
"You will regret this!! I will not allow you to do this!! You won't be forgiven!!"  
"Heheh…." Atrava turned to Sailor Moon, smiling. "And you will be the one to punish me?"  
  
Suddenly, Atrava's skin began to melt, and the Emeralds began to crack. Sailor Moon gasped as Atrava began to laugh.  
  
"You are so wrong, little princess." His skin began to disintegrate as it melted, revealing his muscles, blood vessels and bones. "I have already gotten away with it. The intolerable power of the Emeralds, it is freeing me of your mother's pitiful curse. There is nothing you can do to me. All you can do is watch. Watch….and then die. My way."  
"NOO!!!" Sailor Moon screamed. "Go to hell!!! This can't be!!"  
"Haha!!" Atrava's skeleton was the only thing left that hadn't disintegrated. "Hell, that is where we will meet next, Sailor Moon!!"  
  
Laughing, Atrava melted into ash, which was scattered around the tower. Sailor Moon screamed, and it echoed over the Emeralds' cracking.  
  
"**WATCH OUT!!!!!**" Locke screamed.  
  
With a loud exploding pop, the seven Earth Emeralds, the hosts of destruction, shattered into a million pieces. The roof of the tower ripped open, exposing the group to the dark blackness of space. However, even that turned green in their eyes.  
  
"I can't breathe…"  
  
Knuckles and Julie-Su gasped as green began to spread over the soldiers' bodies.  
  
"NO!!!"  
  
Knuckles shuddered and blasted an energy blast towards them, but it only speeded up the color change. The emerald-created wind howled around them.  
  
"What are we going to do?!" Knuckles screamed. "They're turning green!!"  
"There's nothing we can do."  
  
Knuckles turned to Locke, whose head was down as he held onto his hat.  
  
"Dad…!!!"  
"There is nothing we can do!" Locke repeated at the top of his lungs as the wind became stronger. "The people of this world cannot withstand the power. They are all doomed!!"  
"That can't be right!! We can _save_ them, Dad!!"  
"I wish I had your enthusiasm, son!!" Locke laughed bitterly. "But I don't. There is nothing we can do now without a Controller. God help us!!"  
"God…?"  
Suddenly, there came another sonic boom, and everyone was thrown back several hundred yards as one final explosion rocked the tower, causing it to completely collapse and implode.  
  
---------------------  
  
"Artemis!!"  
  
Luna ran as fast as she could to Central Control. Her fur was completely covered with green.  
  
"Luna!!"  
  
Artemis ran over to rub against her, but she dodged him.  
  
"No….please!!" Luna started to cry. "We've failed. I can sense it. Even if I don't touch you, it won't matter because you will soon be contaminated as well. It's horrible…the Earth, the moon, everything is filled to the brink with Emerald energy."  
"Luna…"  
"Oh, Artemis." Luna's head went down as she stared at the monitor. "I had hoped that the future we have known would come to pass. But this is catastrophic. Everything is infected."  
  
Artemis's head went down at those words. He looked back up at the monitor, then out of the windows of Central Control. Through them he could hear the screams of people choking on the Emerald energy, as well as see the moon as it slowly turned green.  
  
------------  
  
Locke held his head as he slowly got back up. Blood oozed from his injuries again. He looked around, disoriented.  
_Where am I…_  
A figure out of the corner of his eye brought everything back to him. Every single horrible thing.  
  
"Usagi….!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
Locke felt his legs cramp as he ran, but he didn't care. He fell down to the ground, screaming as he picked the figure up.  
  
"USAGI!!! USAAAGIIIII!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
There was no reply from the motionless green figure, her eyes rolled up to the back of her head. Locke took several deep breaths and forced his angry tears back. He shuddered as clenched his hands, dropping Sailor Moon. He brought them to his forehead, teeth clenched.  
_No……..Noooo……._  
Finally, his body could no longer take the shuddering, and his lip began to bleed when his teeth slipped and bit the flesh of his mouth. He nearly passed out. But he forced himself to keep awake.  
_I thought you could do it._ The vacant green eyes stared back at him. They no longer even looked alive. _I placed all of my hope in you. I thought…But not even you could stop it._  
Like a zombie, he put Sailor Moon's head down and simply got up. He stood, looking up at the sky, his eyes completely vacant. For several minutes, it was all he could do.   
_There is no hope now,_ he thought as his gaze moved from the sky to the soldiers. They were coughing as the wind blasted by them. _I can feel life here draining away, slowly and painfully. Maybe I was too late….I wonder why I even came, when the fate of this planet was already sealed…No. It's not sealed. I can feel a heart beat still…_  
  
"Sir!!"  
  
He felt Julie-Su grabbing his hand. He turned around to face her, and saw that she too had been injured.  
  
"Julie-Su?"  
"It's….horrible." Julie-Su fought the wind as she dragged Locke with her. "Look!"  
  
The wind began to subside, as Locke looked towards Earth again. The green glistened off of the planet, almost as if the Earth had turned into a gigantic Chaos Emerald.  
  
"You're right." Julie-Su sighed sadly as Locke stared. "There is no hope. It happened so quickly. No one even expected it."  
"Dad…."   
  
The two looked up at Knuckles as he looked at the planet below. They could see the hope die in his eyes as he saw it, and he held his head in his hands.  
  
"Yeah, Dad." Knuckles' head hung down. "There is nothing that can save this world. I…I can hear their screams as they suffer. It's horrible."  
  
Locke looked back down at the earth. His heart seemed to sink lower with each passing minute in the eyes of the two teenagers.   
  
"You know," he finally managed to get out. "Before this, I would have been happy that this was happening. Six billion Overlanders are dying right before our eyes. It would have been the Mobian thing to do. But……"  
  
Locke's gaze shifted towards Usagi, then back to the planet. Knuckles noticed it, and his eyes grew wide.  
  
"Dad…?"  
"There is no reason to be happy about this." Locke turned to Knuckles. "I am watching six billion people - it doesn't matter their race - die. _Dying_. All of them worthier to live then I. If being a Mobian means I must laugh at this, then I do not want to be a Mobian anymore."  
"….You're right," Julie-Su's voice was hallow. "And what's worse, we can't even go home. There's no way to get off of this satellite without the shuttle."  
  
Locke looked back at Usagi's body. Then he shook his head.  
  
"My mind says there is no hope. My eyes show me there is no hope." Locke looked at Knuckles and Julie-Su. "But there is no way my heart can be taught that there is no hope."  
"Huh?" Both Julie-Su and Knuckles gasped.  
"I can still _feel_ the hope." Locke gave a determined smile, even though there was still disillusionment in his eyes. "No matter how hopeless it may seem, we should never lose ourselves and think that we have failed. Hope….the echidna guardians that helped us from the other side, Andrei Googolov, the sailor soldiers…and Usagi, especially…they believed it could be saved. If there is one thing I have learned from them, and her, it is that to lose hope is to lose life itself. No, there is still hope. We are still alive, and because we are alive there is hope for the earth. We still have time to save this world. I for one will not allow the opportunity to slip on by me."  
  
No one noticed Sailor Moon's eyes turning blue at Locke's words, nor as Locke held out his hand to the other echidnas.  
  
"Knuckles. Julie-Su." Locke looked at each of them individually. "I cannot do it alone this time. I know this for a fact now. I need you, both of you, to help me. We'll have to make a Controller to succeed. But I think we can do it."  
  
In reply to his invitation, Julie-Su slowly put her hand on Locke's hand and shrugged.  
  
"I guess there's nothing to lose" was her comment.  
"Knuckles?"  
  
Knuckles looked over at the earth, then at Locke, then back at earth, then at Locke again. With a definitive hit he slapped his hand down on Locke's and Julie-Su's.  
  
"I guess Athair was actually right," Knuckles chuckled. "Saving the universe is much more than defending just one pebble in the belly of it."  
"Athair, huh?" Locke looked at him. "And when was this?"  
"Umm….a while ago." Knuckles began to sweat.  
"Heh. I forgive you."  
  
Suddenly, they were all knocked down on their feet. A flash of green light emanated in the room.  
  
"The Chaos Emeralds!!" Knuckles shouted. "Let's go!!"  
  
He jumped back up to run towards the decimated pillar, but stopped.  
  
"I….don't believe it…"  
  
The green light slowly lightened into a soft white glow, and Sailor Moon's green complexion disappeared. She stood in the middle of the room, her hands up in the air, holding a bright white light. Her eyes were closed tightly.  
  
"Sailor Moon?!" Julie-Su jumped up. "She's all better!! But how?!"  
"It's….." Locke stood up in bewilderment. "The Silver Crystal…"  
  
Sailor Moon's eyes opened up, revealing her blue eyes. She looked over at the echidnas.  
  
"I heard you, Locke," she replied. "I, too, had lost hope. But you're right. There is hope. But in order to do that I must create an equilibrium of power. With my Silver Crystal."  
"What?!?" Locke's eyes grew wide. "What do you mean?!"  
  
The sailor soldiers' color turned back to normal, and their eyes slowly opened their eyes.  
  
"I will wish for the ultimate power of the Silver Crystal." Sailor Moon closed her eyes. "And I will cover the Emerald clouds on Earth and the moon, and everything that has been contaminated, with its power."  
"Usako!!" Mamoru shouted. "Don't!!"  
"You can't use the ultimate power!!" Venus screamed. "If you do, you'll die!!! You can't recover our world from this horrid power!!!"  
  
Sailor Moon turned back to the soldiers, opening her eyes again. This time, they were purple.  
  
"No. I will live. And I will succeed. Because I have something else other than the Crystal, something that Atrava did not have, in my hands."  
"Something else?"   
"Yes." Sailor Moon looked to Locke and smiled. "Hope."  
  
She closed her eyes again, and held her head down as the light became brighter.  
_Powers of the Silver Crystal. Feel the hope that all of my friends have, both old and new. And grant me the power to bring that hope to the people of Earth. Let us build the future with our hope…_  
  
---------------------  
  
Artemis and Luna lay on the floor of Central Control, their fur green. Outside, the green clouds darkened.  
  
"Luna…How long do you think it will be?"  
"Not long." Luna's eyes were nearly closed. "Just close your eyes and think of good things."  
  
Artemis gave a sigh as he looked out of the window. The screams outside had died long ago, and there was nothing of interest to look at. As he scanned the sky to see and recurring shapes that he might find to wile away his dying self, he suddenly spotted a small glimmer of white trickling through the clouds. He blinked, thinking it was an illusion, but after blinking five times he realized that what he was seeing was no illusion.  
  
"LUNA!!"  
"What."  
"_Look_!!!!"  
  
Luna looked up to see what was happening, and her eyes grew wide when she saw what was happening.  
  
"It can't be!!" She cried happily. "And yet it is!!"  
  
The light suddenly burst through the clouds, causing them to disintegrate. The starry night sky could bee seen, and as the earth was exposed to the blackness of the stars the green pallor began to disappear.  
  
"It's so wonderful!!" Looking up, Luna could see the moon glowing green, though it was becoming considerably lighter with each passing moment. "Sailor Moon is saving us!!!"  
  
Artemis began to laugh with happiness, but a loud cracking behind him caused him to stop.   
  
"Huh?!"  
  
Artemis turned, and saw a large icy spot on the wall….one that was spreading quickly to the floor. His eyes grew wide with horror.  
  
"Oh my god!!!!" Luna shouted. "Artemis!!! Outside!!!"  
  
Artemis turned to look outside, and saw that everything that was uncovered by the power of the Silver Crystal - buildings, people, cars - were suddenly being covered with a sheet of ice.  
  
"Luna!! It's happening in here too!!"  
  
Aretmis turned to see that Luna was already covered in ice, and she was completely frozen.  
  
"_The Earth was hit by ecological disaster, and the planet was forced into a state of dormancy. It lasted for one thousand years…_"  
  
The recollection of the words, though seemingly untimely when Artemis first heard them, now made perfect sense to him as he was laid to dormancy. It was all now crystal clear.  
  
------------------------  
As the soldiers and echidnas looked on, the Earth was slowly blanketed in Silver Crystal power.  
  
"It's the end," Locke gave a sigh of relief. "The Earth is saved."  
"More power…"  
  
Everyone turned to Sailor Moon, who began to shake as the crystal's power became more apparent. The light grew brighter in Sailor Moon's hands as Sailor Moon's sailor suit suddenly turned into bright pink ribbons. The pink ribbons lightened until they were completely white, and they surrounded her body, transforming into a long white dress.  
  
"The Controller serves to unify the Seven....." Sailor Moon suddenly spoke.   
"SAILOR MOON?!?!?"  
"Silver Crystal!!!" Sailor Moon screamed. "The entire planet and the moon!! Give me the power, the power to cleanse everything!!"  
"Sailor Moon....No….." Realization dawned on Mamoru. "That is no longer Sailor Moon. It is….Neo Queen Serenity…"  
"Silver Moon Crystal……..POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
With one final scream, Sailor Moon thrust the crystal forward. Several gigantic beams shot from the crystal, hitting both the earth and the moon with a bright white light. The light that hit the earth expanded itself on the earth until the planet was completely white.  
  
"Sailor Mo-"  
  
Locke's words were cut off by a beam that hit the tower, which engulfed everything within it. The last thing Locke saw before collapsing to the ground was the silhouette of a goddess with wings, which suddenly shot up from the white light and disappeared into the depths of power before disappearing completely.  
  
---------------------  
  
If anyone on the earth was still coherent enough to see the power which resonated between themselves and their satellite, though this was almost impossible as all were laid to dormancy, they would have been fearful for their lives, especially after the initial attack of multiple beams. Only one solitary beam was left on the moon, pointing straight up into space.  
After that beam finally dissolved, one solitary glimmer of light was left floating over the newly iced-over rock that had been the moon. From the distance, it looked like a beautiful newborn star. Up close, however, one would see something else.  
Inside of it was the crouched silhouette of a woman. Her hair was long and blonde. A pair of rainbow wings adorned her back. A moon sign was in the middle of her forehead. She slowly opened her eyes to look at the planet that she just saved, and smiled.  
_Don't worry, guys,_ she mouthed. _I'll be back._  
With that, the star shot off into the sky, leaving a white trail of dust as it headed for unknown destinations.


	15. Epilogue

  
_A small click in the trees. The sound of wolf on the horizon. The moon shines brightly on the forest as the group returns to their outpost confused and wavering in their search for an answer. An answer to what happened.   
  
The leader of the group wipes his brow. He is the age of Knuckles and is like Knuckles but isn't. He is blue instead of red and with quills instead of dreadlocks. He looks over to his friends - the orange fox with the two tails the squirrel with the red hair the walrus with the hat among them. And the corcodile the armadillo the cameleon the two elder echidnas that follow. He looks over to the small village that he calls home.  
  
Where is everyone, he is inquiring. Something strange has happened in the sky.  
  
As he looks back to confirm his claim. He is stunned to find that they have suddenly disappeared. The forest seems to suddenly close in on him all of a sudden and he tries to run as running has saved him before but it will not save him from inevitability. Just as Atrava was swallowed by his hate for the House of Serenity Sonic is now swallowed by the forest a forest that suddenly came to life under his feet and decided when restoration would come after it saw the sky. And just like what happened in the sky all of the people shall be swallowed by nature and lain to dormancy, by the shining power that suddenly burst from the warp over the dead Floating Island which leads to the light, until time has passed so that they might return again.  
  
Aaah, it says to me. You see friends retribution will not come yet. They must ripen under ground just as all in the sky will ripen under ice. Their hearts will slow down to a crawl and their minds will shut down their last thought that of being in brown and green and how they knew not that the ground and vines that they love contain their final resting place.  
  
And I say to them as they slowly succumb: You see. I am we. We are Ancient Walkers.  
  
Yes, I am the one that began it all. Your journeys and Knuckles. Without me you would not exist now. I have been here in my place long enough and do not speak like others speak anymore but I see all that you do not Freedom Fighters. I tell you that you will not die that you are simply here to wait just as I had to wait and still had to wait for passing eons both of us. Only you will be alive when your waiting is done. We dead and you living have much in common.  
  
And I tell you also that your search was in vain. He is not here. He is where he must be a place you have yet to know about but when you awaken you will know of it. When you awaken is when you will take your thrones and Miles will awaken finally and say to the sky: Athair, I am the chosen one! and I will fulfill this destiny to gather the Seven just as _she_ did.  
  
She is the strongest of all children. She is the Controller of another Seven. She carries a hope that even Beezelbub couldn't resist. But you know nothing of a Beezelbub. Beezulbub resides where Knuckles has gone.  
  
As it can be seen from the great planets of outer space that small insignificant rural planet of Earth has within the time frame of only five minutes changed color. It had been blue before then it was green but only for a tiny space of time before turning completely white. Some of the scientists studying the phenomenon comment that the planet looked frighteningly like a certain legendary crystal which had passed through the same system that the planet lay in several centuries ago. However the prognosis of the mysterious astonomical event is simple: a meteor had finally hit the planet sending dust particles into the air. It was predicted that it would not clear for several centuries.  
  
If the scientists know the truth or wish to know the truth all they have to do is visit the moon of the planet where a similar phenomenon has occurred. Their answers lie in a small tower and in the tower two echidnas. Both come from my house descendants of molten slag who evolved and became learned until Edmund became guardian and created them. Both have been transformed by the power of the girl in their own ways. And both now stay where they are for a thousand years.   
  
Knuckles is closer to slumber than Locke. He is up to his neck in white Silver Crystal cold the purifier the neutralizer the symbol of the Controller whatever you wish to call it. Another icy figure leans on his shoulder an echidna not from Edmund's house and pink but an echidna nonetheless. She is already gone. Her thousand years have begun.  
  
Dad. Knuckles speaks.  
Son?  
I wonder….how long do you think we'll be like this?  
I…don't know. Locke's face is in thought as the ice creeps up his back. Centuries, perhaps. It will be awhile before the Silver Crystal completely purifies Earth of the Emerald energy.  
I guess so. But I wish this would hurry up because the longer I have to wait to freeze the more I am regretting staying.  
Even if you want to leave there is no way Locke replies. We are both frozen in place and no one knows we are here so we are jinxed if we want to leave. But I am no hurry because there is nothing left for me now on Mobius.  
Nothing left….  
  
Both are silent for several moments. Finally as the ice begins to take Knuckles' face.  
  
I want to ask you a question.  
Of course.  
What is one thing you regret in your life?  
………….Leaving you.  
Really?  
Yes. Locke nods. I feel like I have failed you by leaving you. I feel as if I have done everything wrong.  
But that's not true. Knuckles objects. It is the best thing you have done.  
What do you mean?  
I know how you are Dad. Every time I failed you would be there to pick me up and then you would think it was your fault because that is how you are - always blaming yourself even if it has nothing to do with you. It's the truth. You may not think it was the right choice to follow tradition and yes, you dodged me when I asked those questions, but I realized that some of those questions were mine to know by myself. If you hadn't done what you did I would not be the person I am today.  
I guess you're right.  
You _guess_? See what I mean Dad, you're doing it now.  
  
Laughing then more silence.  
  
Dad. This Earth, it has changed you. I can see it.  
Yes it has.  
But not just this world. It was her.  
Her?  
I can see it. Something about _her_. It has changed you. And that is why you can't go back.  
Yes. Locke looks at Knuckles with a strange pride in his face. I cannot go back. She has changed me. I have seen the goodness of humans and humans are so much like us….I was frightened by it at first. Then I thought that they were much like the Overlanders of our world and that's when I realized. I'm having a crisis of conscience. How can I return to fight them when I came here and found myself in love with a woman that embodies what they are? No echidna would believe me.  
That makes two of us.   
  
More silence.  
  
Dad….I can't feel myself anymore….  
Then it won't be long. Patience.  
Do you think I'll have thoughts under the ice?  
I….don't know.  
I hope so.  
Perhaps we should try to think of something to focus on when we're frozen. Locke can't help chuckling. I guess several centuries with nothing on your mind could make you go insane.  
Yeah. Another moment of silence. I've got something.  
What?  
You. Mom. Julie-Su. And everyone. In the same place. Happy.  
That's a good thought, Knuckles.  
I figured…………  
I think. Locke continued. My thought will be of the hope that I have been shown here - a hope that can revive whole civilizations, will conquer the blackest thoughts and unite the most hostile nations. Usagi, the Controller of entropy, showed me a part of myself I thought had died - and I still feel her love even though she is not mine to have. I have hope. All of the good things in my life, even my dead love of your mother, on my mind. What do you think, Knuckles?  
  
There is no reply. Locke looks over and sees that Knuckles did not hear him. All that is left of Knuckles is a pillar of ice. Locke is shocked. He cries out Knuckles Knuckles Knuckles Knuckles and it echoes in the tower but there is no sound from the son.  
  
Now he is gone. And I must wait alone.  
  
But now that is not true Locke. I can tell you that now. As you look your eyes scan the sky and spot a small light on the horizon. It shoots across the sky in a chaotic burst of flame. Her. Usagi. Princess. You feel a fleeting happiness but as you think once again of the hope you found and the hope you will carry forevermore your thoughts attempt to shift briefly to how long will it be that I wait but you find that you cannot shift them. Frozen. You see that you are a statue now an icicle but even as a statue you still see her feel her presence and know her. Her hair flying in the wind her face smooth and soft as light like the feathers in her angel wrongs. The crescent moon on her forehead. Her curved bodice.  
Your eyes black out and you see no more and you know the wait begins but her the girl borne of chaos who has all hope for her world will be here forever with you.  
  
The light of hope. The Controller. Her. Sailor Moon. But now it is gone._  


****

THE END


End file.
